Tag: meeting people in NYC

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personal

Everything is so plastic

Looking for something real

Met up with the Medemerge Doc the other day again for lunch.

It was funny because we’d ordered some beers and they didn’t have the one I liked so I got a backup.

Waitress: (walking over to our table with a full beer) The bartender got the wrong beer for someone and I didn’t want this to waste. Do you want it?
Me: (scoffing) Like we’re gonna turn down free beer.
Her: (laughing) Here you go.

While the doc and I were chatting – about AI again, but that’s another entry – I heard a voice call out:

NFL Player: Is that Logan Lo from Scenic Fights?!
Me: Hey! What are you doing in town?
Him: Had to take care of some things. Flying out first thing in the morning.
Me: Was it something I said?

Afterward…

Doc: That seems to happen to you a lot.
Me: That’s the kinda stuff that happens when you live in the same neighborhood for 32 years.
Him: (shaking head) If you look around and thought, “I wonder whicha these guys have been here 32 years,” I doubt they’d pick you.
Me: I choose not to get old.

Speaking of choosing not to get old, came across the most fascinating article the other day.

Essentially, the article says that the modern LED lights we use everywhere these days have very little red light in them.

And you know those red-light masks that everyone is wearing to fight wrinkles and such? Well, our modern lights are the opposite of those.

Perhaps that’s one contributing factor to why I age so slowly, because a solid 1/3 of all the lights in my apartment are grow lights – that is to say, full-spectrum light bulbs that feed plants.

I do it because I have plants all over the pad, which I feel we need – we need some bit of nature in our lives, more than just the 30 seconds it takes you to walk past the one tree on the street.

Well, it turns out that they may have more benefit to me than just that.

But that’s how it should be.

When we were walking to meet up with my Friends Around the Way the other day, we walked past this ground floor unit with all these fake plants in the window.

Her: What’s wrong?
Me: That just drives me crazy.
Her: The plants?
Me: The fake plants. Everything is so plastic and fake these days. Look at all the light they get – they could *easily* grow real plants, but instead of imperfect real plants, they want plastic fake plants. If that doesn’t encapsulate the world today, I dunno what does.

Everything is so fake these days.

I think most people are hungry for real things but don’t realize it until it’s too late.

And I’m not just talking about plants.

Editor’s note: Assume I make a tiny commission via Amazon Associates or something with every product link I have. I gotta figure out a way that’s not annoying to put this warning on alla my posts.

Location: all over Manhattan today
Mood: productive
Music: When I was a child, I loved the nature. Now I barely see it (Spotify)
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Doctor, Doctor

Super interesting

Me: Hey, do you remember when I went to the medemerge a few weeks ago?
Her: Yeah?
Me: Well, that doc and I are meeting up for dinner tonight.
Her: What?! Man, you are amazing at meeting people. Wait, it’s a male doctor, right?

It turns out that the doc is really into AI and what it can do for the medical community and I’ve been building these private AI machines for people just as a(nother) hobby and he wanted to know more about it.

Him: Actually, I’m German.
Me: Wirklich? Mein deutsch ist ja sehr schlect.
Him: Nien, Sie sprechen sehr gut deutsch.
Me: Das ist nicht war, aber danke.

I meet and know a lotta doctors, which is probably a good thing because goodness knows that I’m always injuring myself.

Speaking of doctors, the Shooting Doctor invited Sara and me to go out shooting with him this past weekend.

Somehow, between being a doctor, teaching, taking kali and other classes, he still has time to regularly attend – and win – shooting competitions.

So, bright and early last weekend, we went off to NJ to get some shooting done.

Those are bullets casings all around my feet.

He picked us up in Hoboken and we were at the range not that long afterward.

Can’t remember the last time I was at a shooting range.

The actual shooting was ridonk fun. Sara was clearly the better shot.

Me: That’s so impressive!
Her: I’m from the south. Everybody has guns.

But the star of the show was clearly the Shooting Doctor, because he was just nailing the bullseye with each shot.

For me, I did a lot better with the long guns than I did the pistols.

Him: You guys should shoot more.
Me: We’re down!
Her: We just need to find the time and a way to get there.

Afterwards, we were all the mood for some Greek/Turkish/Mediterranean food, so I found a well-reviewed joint in a mall, of all places, called Marmara Mediterranean.

Me: Whoa, this is why I like eating outta the city. We have square footage.
Her: Yeah, people aren’t on top of us here.
Me: It’s glorious.

The place and the food couldn’t be better…

Me: Wow, that bread looks amazing.
Her: It’s like a bread football!

…and the people couldn’t be nicer.

Sara: (to Shooting Doc) Have you ever had dinner with a patient before?
Him: Nope!
Me: (shrugging) I’m super interesting.

OK, maybe not me, but everyone else.

Waiter: Do you want dessert?
Me: We’re all stuffed because the food was so good – we couldn’t possibly.
Owner: (five minutes later) You can’t leave without having dessert. Here, these are on the house.

And with that, he comped us two of the best puddings I’ve ever had.

Cannot recommend the place highly enough.

Me: OMG, I really gotta hit up the gym after this.
Her: I’m so full.

The ride back to the Hoboken train station took 90 minutes because of rando traffic.

We made our way into the city when I noticed a Luckin Coffee and Sara never had it and wanted to try.

It was late by the time we got home.

Me: That was a super fun day.
Her: Agreed.
Me: You thinking about doing a shooting competition like the Shooting Doctor suggested?
Her: Maybe? But we’d have to get out there.
Me: Maybe someday.
Her: (nodding) Maybe.

Location: the studio, shooting – not this one, the other one – more Scenic Fights videos
Mood: weary
Music: Being poor is a disease, gotta hustle up a cure (Spotify)
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An unexpected night out

I’m such a fickle Finny

RE Mike: Hey, where are you guys tonight? There’s a Chinese New Year Party [right near you].
Me: We just ate but is that [our mutual friend that I did work for]?
Him: Yup. Sick house. Come.

A while ago, right before COVID, I did some legal work for a fella around the way.

It was COVID and my brain was still a mess from: COVID, Alison, my dad, and a buncha other things during that time so that whole time is super fuzzy.

This past weekend was the first in over two months where Sara and I had absolutely nuthin planned for the whole weekend.

Was just gonna sit around and just read. It was gonna be glorious.

That is, until RE Mike gave me a ring outta the blue and told me that our mutual friend was having a party and we should swing by.

While I really just wanted to stay home, this guy put millions – legit millions – into converting a multi-family townhouse into a single family one with a swimming pool in the basement, a garage, and an elevator – just a few blocks south of me.

When I last saw it, it was a shell, so I wanted to see what it looked like completed.

Me: Shoot, we just ate! Would love to come just to say hi and check out but we can’t stay long. Would that be ok? We’d bring a bottle of wine or something.
Him: Yes.

So, off we went.

The place was…gorgeous.

And the food was amazeballs.

But, we literally just ate.

Ended up chatting with a buncha lawyers that went to the same high school that I did – and pretty much everyone I spoke to went to an Ivy League.

Met this one guy who was a doctor, competed as a fencer and wrestler for Yale and – even at 70 – still competed.

Me: That’s wild, man.
Him: I’m still pretty fast so I thought, “why not?”
Me: Working out, it’s the fountain of youth.

It’s true, I thought he was in his early 60s, and he thought I was in my 30s.

Afterwards, RE Mike, my friends around the way, and I all walked home.

Soon, it was just Sara and me.

Me: That was nice – it’s nice having these unexpected nights out.
Her: Yes. I was just telling someone that we live such an interesting life.
Me: True. Although there’s a lot to be said about just staying home and doing nuthin.
Her: Oh, you’re such a fickle Finny, Logan Lo.

Location: Home all day. Glorious.
Mood: busy
Music: It’s time to light the fuse again (Spotify)
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Unkindness, Pt 2

Running into people

Like I said, a buncha people from my past have been making a reappearance in my life, in a manner of speaking – either they actually have or I thought about them, which I’d probably not done in a while.

First is someone I’ll call the Cellini Coach whom I last saw out in California.

I call him Cellini because, like him and Jason Everman, he’s insanely successful in some seriously disparate fields:

  • He sold a buncha companies to Google and Facebook – you’ve absolutely used his stuff if you’ve been on either of them – and might be a billionaire. I’m not sure.
  • He’s also a ridonk fighter – fourth degree black belt in BJJ from Gracie Barra, great boxer, and trained shooter and wrestler – and is kinda my private coach on certain things (see below).
  • He’s also getting his master’s degree in philosophy a Oxford.

Despite alla this, though, he’s a pretty quiet and down-to-earth kinda guy.

Him: Don’t put up a picture of me.
Me: It’s ironic that a fella that helped invent the internet doesn’t wanna be on it.

Plus, even though he’s a super busy and successful guy, he’ll still take the time out to answer questions that I’ve got regarding certain aspects of fighting which I always appreciate.

Like most kindnesses I get, it’s a kindness that is neither expected nor warranted.

Below is him acting as my coach, which he totally doesn’t need to do, and yet he does.

We met up just this past week a mutual friend’s physical therapy joint – Recalibrate PT, which is probably one of the best PT spaces in the city IMHO.

There, Cellini he took two hours outta his super busy schedule to give me a private lesson to help me fix a buncha issues I’ve been having with my game.

I also ran into a whole raft of friends while there that I’d not seen in ages, including my buddy Sawyer – who was training with my friend Cotton (whom I also recommend if you’re looking for a personal trainer).

Me: Dude, we loved Masters of the Air, whatever happened to your character (Lt. Roy Frank Claytor)?
Sawyer: In the show, he just disappeared but in real life, he survived WWII and fought in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, which he also survived.

On a somewhat related note, I recently had a phone call with someone whom I was unkind to ages ago.

He said I never apologized to him for being unkind to him, but he seems to have forgotten that he wouldn’t let me apologize to him.

Still, I suppose that’s really neither here nor there; I could have apologized again but chose not to again.

In any case, I figured that, since I was the one originally in the wrong, I’d just go ahead and apologize again to him, again and did that.

I’m hoping he took it to heart just because I would hate for anyone to suffer because of something I did, but that’s really his decision to make and not mine.

I suppose we all do unkind things as much as we do kind ones and, when we do unkind things, we should try to fix things when given an opportunity to do so.

This actually reminds me of something else entirely, but I’ll tell you about that later.

Location: my freezing pad
Mood: possibly sick with a broken toe
Music: I thought it was just another fight (Spotify)

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A shoot, drinks, a pier, and a church

Plus a pitcher of ice

Me: You know what I love most about living in NYC?
Firecracker: What?
Me: It’s like that line in Fools Rush In that I’m always talking about – if you wait around long enough, pretty much the whole world will pass through.

Had an all-day Scenic Fights shoot the other night for a holiday special that we’re doing.

I’m sure you can guess what holiday from the main pic.

Had to cut out of filming at a certain time both to grab my kid as well as to meet an old friend of mine that was visiting from San Francisco.

I first met him about 2004 or so when he needed a place to stay in NYC.

Doesn’t feel like over two decades ago, and yet it was.

At that time, he was dating someone, and he ended up marrying and having two kids with her – both of whom are now in college.

In any case, his oldest is now in NYC – and I think graduating this year – and he and his wife were in town and asked to meet up.

I suggested a buncha places but, because the weather was perfect, I suggested Pier I, and they agreed and met us there.

It was nice catching up with everyone.

Firecracker: We usually have pretty quiet nights.
Me: That’s because of her addiction.
Firecracker: What addiction?!
Me: Big Two – we literally play a few hands almost every night.
Friend’s Wife: OMG, we LOVE Big Two! If we had cards, we could play right now.
Firecracker: I totally would! He’s right, I am addicted.
Me: Plus, I tried to convince her to hustle a buncha old Chinese in Boston.

One little thing that was annoying is that we ordered a pitcher of a mixed drink that – after taxes and tip – cost about $100.

But we were only able to get three drinks outta it.

So, I spoke to the manager who was super nice.

Me: Sorry, I don’t mean to be all Karen about this but…that works out to be about $33.50 per drink. It was like, all ice!
Her: Oh, I would be upset too. Can I mix you three more drinks?
Me: Oh, that’s a lot. I think two would be fair.
Her: (smiling) I’ll mix three, no problem.

So, that was pretty cool.

Afterward, we took mini walk around the hood.

Him: Hey, that’s my old apartment!
Me: Yup. Not much has changed with it in over two decades.

We walked by a church which, I’ll have to tell you about one day because – completely by coincidence – it was a major part of the lecture I gave in France all those years ago because it was involved in a seminal US Supreme Court case.

Anywho, the guy that manages the church is a friend of mine and, without our even asking, he unlocked it and let us marvel at the main rectory.

Afterward, they left and we went back home.

Like I said, if you wait long enough, pretty much the whole world filters through NYC, it seems.

Her: They were nice. And it was so cool that your friend gave us a private tour of the church.
Me: Yeah. I’ve met alotta really cool and nice people all these years. Hopefully, the kid can do the same.

Location: my pad on a zoom with my doc telling me I’ll probably need surgery at some point
Mood: discouraged
Music: knew I could regain my sight, and it feels alright (Spotify)
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When you know…

…you know

A dear friend wrote me outta the blue one morning.

Her: Hola! You’re probably sleeping but I wanted to see if you and [The Firecracker] are doing anything on the 29th. This guy I’m dating, who apparently is my boyfriend, is taking me to dinner in the city. He’s inviting you both to join.
Me: What?! Yes! And…what!?

I’ve known her a solid 17 years and have never met anyone she’s ever dated, let alone someone she’s called her boyfriend.

So, I moved a buncha things around and the two of us met up with her and her fella at Aqua, downtown.

He was actually a super nice fella and seemed a touch nervous, which I found pretty sweet.

Me: How did you two meet?
Friend: (rolls her eyes) How do you think, Logan?
Me: Ah, the traditional online meet-cute.
Firecracker: Logan wanted to make the best first impression so he ate a full dinner before dinner.
Me: This is true, I had to pregame with a burger and salad.

Of course, this didn’t stop me from finishing my entire meal.

As well as the Firecracker’s.

And my friend’s.

And…

Him: I actually only wanted half the pizza.
Me: Are you sure?
Friend: Just eat it, Logan, you know you want to.
Me: (shrugging) Hokay.
Firecracker: I honest-to-god don’t know where he puts it all. I always say that he’s got a peg leg.

Turns out that he’s only in town for a (very) long-term work project but hinted that he was open to moving to the area for her.

Friend: (joking) I don’t know why he’s so into me.
Me: Oh, I get it.
Firecracker: Me too – when you know you know.

This isn’t to say that they’re guaranteed to end up together – although the Firecracker and I really liked him and hope they work out – but it’s definitely worlds easier when both parties are really into each other.

Afterward, we went to Thyme Bar where I bought a round of drinks before heading back.

The drinks were delicious and insanely strong.

On the ride back, the Firecracker and I got to talking; we both agreed that we felt a spark the moment we met and saw each other almost every day for weeks.

Me: The thing is that, when I met you, I wanted to see you as much as possible because the worst type of disappointment is the kind that takes months to figure out.
Her: (nodding) Same. I wanted to know as soon as possible as well.

Said it before, the worst part about dating is the constant disappointment and disappointing.

Here’s hoping they make their spark last.

Firecracker: (reading over my shoulder as I write this) Like us!
Me: (laughing) Agreed.

Location: home, listening to the dulcet sounds of TWO jackhammers right outside my door
Mood: Jackhammered
Music: And I want you to want to be here with me (Spotify)
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Cocktails at Omega

A Second Invitation

I’d taken over my old instructor’s class for a number of years when his work schedule changed but then everything went to hell with Alison, so he returned, and I went back to just being one of his students.

But I still have a handful of people that I tutor – I’m not their main instructor but I give them tips and tricks to improve their kali.

One such person is a Radiologist from Pittsburgh (which happens to be exactly where the Professor lives).

In any case, the Radiologist dropped me a line the other day.

Him: Hey! I remember us talking a while back about nice watches. My sister works for a luxury brand, and they are hosting some fun swanky event. Would you have any interest in taking your fiancée to something like that?
Me: 100%! Where and when?

So, before we knew it, we were downtown at Brookfield Place at the Omega Store there.

Turns out that the Radiologist got the time a bit off, so we walked around for 30 minutes beforehand, checking the place out.

And then, afterward, we went to the Omega store and met up with the Radiologist’s sister, who was just a sweetheart and got along with the Firecracker, swimmingly.

Her: Do you want to try on the pink one?
Firecracker: Sure, thanks!

She was also kind enough to have someone bring us some champagne…

Me: This reminds me of when we were in Pasadena.
Firecracker: Oh right, at Tiffany’s. We should check out wedding bands.

…as well as some hors d’oeuvres.

We spent most of the time chatting with his sister but also with the person in charge of alla the Omega stores in North America – turns out, he’s proficient in ranged weapons while I focus mainly on melee weapons.

Later on that week, the Radiologist was in town and we brought him to the same bistro I brought the professor for some drinks because he was fully scheduled.

Me: (to waitress) I bring all the Pittsburgh doctors I know here.
Her: (laughs) OK!

Afterwards, the Firecracker and I chatted.

Her: It’s nice that you always get invited to the rando things.
Me: Like I said, the whole point of being invited someplace is to get a second invitation.

Location: all over midtown with a hot blonde and a dog
Mood: less ache-y
Music: The city won’t change us, we beat to the same drum (Spotify)
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Drinks at the Hotel Chelsea

Old friends come to visit

Him: Hey Logan! I’m in town for work again. I’m with distillery and distributor partners but if you wanted to join us for a drink, let me know.
Me: Where and when!?

The Firecracker and I have a strange little artifact from when we were younger.

She met one of her oldest friends online via a chatroom while I have a solid amount of friends that I still keep from my Livejournal days – I’ve literally got too many to mention.

That’s the kinda stuff I don’t think is really all that common anymore.

Anywho, one such friend is my buddy Paul N, not to be confused with my old drinking buddy Paul.

The last time I saw him was back in 2018, when I visited my brother and met up with him as well.

When we first “met” online, he was a marketing guy and a wannabe writer whereas I was a lawyer and a wannabe writer.

But since then, he launched the award-winning – seriously award-winning, check out all the awards below – Japanese spirit Nankai Shochu.

So, he’s now the owner of a liquor company with staff and inventory, jetting around the world, hustling to get his premium hooch all over the place.

I’m still just a lawyer and wannabe writer but that’s neither here nor there.

He was in town so the Firecracker and I went down to the Hotel Chelsea – a joint I’ve walked past a million times but never went in – and met up with him and some of his work colleagues.

There was a huge line and waiting list to get into the private sitting area but one of his friends, the lady in orange below, is a bit of celebrity bartender and she managed to float us all in.

Me: Killer! See, this is what you pay for – not having people on top of you.
Firecracker: And quiet, I swear, every bar in the city is a sports bar.

There’s nothing quite like ordering drinks with people that spend their lives thinking about and working with drinks.

I told Paul’s bartender friend to just order me rum drinks she enjoyed, and she did. They were all delish.

Now, his particular brand of shochu is very similar to rum, something I’ve pointed out to him numerous times.

This time, however, he told me that he was launching a rhum agricole, something I’ve never particularly liked.

Him: Just try it. It’s very different from other types of that rum. Our distiller is a mad scientist. (pours me some, surreptitiously)
Me: (trying it) Whoa, that’s the best one I’ve ever had.

That wasn’t a lie.

Normally, you can’t drink rhum agricole neat but this one I could definitely see myself sipping in the future.

Me: On that note, have I ever told you my rum story?
Him: You may have, tell it again and I’ll tell you if I heard it before.
Me: OK, so the story of rum is really the story of us…

It was definitely a fun night…

Him: You know what Korean (Americans) do when they’re drunk?
Me: No…?
Him: They argue about who’s more Korean. So, one night, Jo and Man…

…and, afterward, they went off to another bar.

But the Firecracker and I are on full-time parenting duties as the school year winds down.

So, we made our goodbyes and our way home.

Her: You always have such nice friends.
Me: I know. It’s a wonder why they chose to hang out with a fella like me. (later) It’s always nice when old friends come by for a visit.

Location: in front of my computer, all damn day
Mood: groggy
Music: I don’t want to be the villain all the time (Spotify)
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The exciting UWS

Deer, water, and the UWS

I like my neighborhood precisely because it isn’t exciting – at all.

There are cool things like the Beacon Theatre and Lincoln Center but it’s still relatively quiet around here.

Well, last week was a doozy of a week for the UWS for a number of reasons.

Me: What’s going on?
Buddy: A deer got hit by a car.
Me: No, seriously, what happened?
Him: That’s what happened!

Didn’t believe my friend I ran into around it when he told but it seems that a deer that somehow ended up in the Upper West Side and got hit by a car.

It then sought shelter in a townhouse courtyard that I regularly walk past on the way to/from my gym.

The cops shoo-ed me away when I tried to take some pics…

…but a fella I didn’t know came up to me.

Him: Hey, I got some pics if you want to see what’s going on.
Me: That’d be great, thanks!

He ended up sending them to me so I could show the Firecracker, who was definitely not gonna believe me because I could barely believe it myself.

He was definitely wounded and bleeding profusely.

Yes, that’s the deer’s blood. It was really that colour.

They shot it with a tranq but had to put it down, I heard.

NYC’s a rough place if you’re not used it to.

Poor guy.

The other thing that’s been happening is that my tiny building is dealing with more water issues.

Couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out where it was coming in from so, I hired a pro, whom I’d worked with in the past.

Damn if he didn’t go to the other side of the guardrail – the side where you fall to your death – hold onto the potentially unstable guardrail with his left hand…

…balance on one lege, and dangle OVER the gutter and take a picture of a 25 foot long, one inch gash underneath my gutter.

Him: I think I found your problem. There’s…
Me: Come back first!

He survived and I definitely needed a drink after all that.

Like I said, I like living where I live precisely because it isn’t exciting.

Here’s hoping things go back to being boring next week.

The X is where his foot was and the dot is where his head was.

Location: Not dangling over my roof, I can tell ya that
Mood: insanely busy
Music: standing ’round this corner, tall enough to touch the New York sky (Spotify)
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Another Love Cover

Japanese BBQ in the UWS

The kid had his second recital the other day and played Tom Odell’s Another Love.

This is him playing in his first, if you never saw it.

I’d never heard of the song before and there’s on expletive in the original, but he really wanted to play it and his music teacher felt it was a good choice.

So, I let him do it.

Think it turned out pretty well, actually.

Afterward, we ended up having dinner at the same joint that the Firecracker and I went to a year-and-a-half ago.

And, we ended up going with the same family we went with the last time, except that they also brought a family friend along – who just happened to be Japanese.

Me: (to my friend) You could have mentioned that she was Japanese! That’s like me bringing a Scottish person to McDonalds and calling it Scottish food.
Her: (laughing) It’s fine! Actually, this food is pretty good Japanese food.
Me: You’re being nice, but I’ll take it.

The woman actually spoke perfect English; I woulda thought she was from NYC if she didn’t say that she was originally from Tokyo and lived there still.

We got onto the topic of alla useless facts rattling around in my head.

Her: Like what?
Me: Well, I see you’re wearing a Columbia jacket. That company was founded by this German family that fled the Nazis and left behind their successful clothing company. When they got here, the found someone selling a clothing company, immediately bought it, and renamed it after the Columbia River.
Her: (laughing) How do you know all that?
Me: I have no idea.

This is true.

The vast majority of facts I know are (a) useless and (b) of completely unknown origins.

Somehow, these interesting stories stick around in my brain.

And now, maybe it’ll stick in yours?

Location: Early morning, upstairs, trying to replace a shower door
Mood: groggy
Music: Words, they always win, but I know I’ll lose (Spotify)
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