Rendezvous Thursday

Here is another Chronicles of Rendezvous Casualties, glad i got this one I don't have time to write today anyway.

Last night we were talking about exes and if people were on good terms with them still. While I find it hard to remain friends after a breakup, it got me thinking about the what ifs and some of my 'interesting' dates and how I am glad they never had a chance to become exes. So here is a story of one such date:

I was being set up by a friend at work, who really shouldnt be a friend anymore after this date. Lets call the date Bob and it was this past summer. Bob and I emailed a few times and talked on the phone and agreed to meet at Tapeo on Newbury street at 8pm for drinks and some tapas on a Friday night. One knows its generally acceptable to arrive a few minutes late for a date, to be exact I was 8 minutes late. The bar was crowded and when I finally spotted him, he was sitting at the bar. However, he was eating, yes he was already eating. Hello I was 8 minutes late!! I can see getting a drink but he was eating!! My intial reaction was just to turn around and run, but he already saw me. So I stayed, he was talking all about himself,his Harvard PhD, new biotech company he was starting, yada yada.... I wasnt really attracted to him physically and it didnt really matter because he was already eating when I arrived, I could see if I was 30 minutes late but 8!?!?! Miss Manners would of
been probably had a heart attack by his rudeness.

So he finally lets me order one tapas and some olives to start. He orders one and then says that he needs to go back to work so I shouldnt really order more. So the bill comes and the bartender gives it to him, and the first thing he says is didnt you split the check? Which the bartender was like no, and just looks at me - at this point I was really horrified at the lack of manners, he could of taken it and when I do my usual would you like me to pay my half he could of said yes. So he makes a big deal and i tell the bartender we can figure it out, and he finally shuts up. I mean how hard is it to split up a bill for two people, especially if you have a Harvard PhD?? So the bill is a whopping $35! I give him a $20 and he pays the bill with an American Express Platnium card. Do you know how much you have to pay, have in personal assets and spend to get an Amex Platnium Card? I mean the annual fee alone is $400! At this point I am in total disbelief obviously could of afforded a
$35 tab and has no manners!

We walk outside, where I was like nice meeting you and took off. Hoping never to see or hear from him again. Wrong, the next day I get an email saying "I had a good time meeting and talking to you but obviously there was no chemistry so I shouldnt plan on seeing him again!" - Oh like my heart was broken!!

Mid Day Hedgie

I just had to put of the picture of Hedgie in his new jester's outfit. If you want to cut out your own Hedgie and dress him up try Hedgehog Coloring Costumes and print out Hedgie or his wife Hedga. They have a bunch of outfits, which are much easier to cut out then Hedgie himself. Good luck and enjoy!!!

Hedgie Runs Away

Aren't hedgehogs the coolest looking animals? I have always wanted one, but they cost between $100 and $150 plus they are a lot of work and since I am never home it just wouldn't work. It also wouldn't be cool because I would have to name it Sonic. I could see bringing it to the vet and them asking what its name is and upon hearing Sonic they would comment on how original I am. Boy I sure am struggling for content today.

Okay if you are sitting at work and kind of bored today or maybe you're not bored and just feel like wasting a little time. I found a couple cool sites today the first is the Paper Airplane Flight Simulator, which allows you to control the angle of release, the velocity and the position of the elevators. The second site Paper Airplane Print Outs allows you to print out some airplanes for testing at the office. I have made all three provided and they work well. Good luck with the planes.

Would you not like to be
Sitting on top of the world with
your legs hanging free
Would you not like to be ok, ok, ok?
-David John Matthews
Audio or lyrics to Lie In Our Graves.

Ssorg Rekoms

Okay I have a complaint this morning. Now nothing bothers me when driving more than when somebody tosses a cigarette out there car window. It is just gross to smoke in the first place and the littering a fiery object out of a car travelling at 80 MPH is not exactly a good plan either. So anyway this morning I was driving to work and the driver of the car in front of me tossed a butt out the window. I eventually pulled up next to this woman and looked in the car and noticed hanging from her rear view mirror was an air freshener. Now is it just me or does this not make much sense. Is it possible that the air freshener really has any chance of counteracting the cigarette smoke smell? Well if she is dumb enough to smoke despite the possibility of lung cancer, perhaps she isn't smart enough to realize the air freshener is kind of a waste.

My second observation of the day came in the parking lot at Oak Grove. The whole deal with the parking lot is that it is only three dollars for unlimited parking all day. So it is in high demand, which means it fills up between 6:30 and 6:45 each day. If you don't make it into the lot, it is still possible to park along the road for three dollars but it is a bit more of a pain in the ass because you have to have three one dollar bills. So I made it in the lot today and noticed how more than a few people were just sitting in their cars doing different things like sleeping, reading the paper, eating breakfast and listening to the radio. I have to admit I sat there for five minutes listening to the radio. It is just funny that we all rush to Malden just to sit in the parking lot. My favorite had to be the guy that was sleeping though, I wonder how long he sleeps in his car for before heading in to work.

Look up at the sky
My mouth is open wide, lick and taste
What's the use in worrying, what's the use in hurrying
Turn, turn we almost become dizzy
-David John Matthews
lyrics or audioof Dancing Nancies

For all you lucky folks who are checking in again. I am celebrating my new LiveJournal application I downloaded by making another posting. It is pretty cool and handy since now I don't have to log on to the net, I can just make a posting whenever something comes to mind.

For example, I just got back from lunch which was as hectic as usual since we couldn't decide where to eat AGAIN. We ended up going to Taste of the Town, which was great because I had Salisbury Steak for the first time since high school and it sure was good. I did notice something odd after I finished the steak, I was actually eating and enjoying zucchini squash. It is weird how I have changed, six months ago, it would have ended up in the trash. So after lunch I had to calm my candy fix for the afternoon and headed to seven one one, my favorite candy supplier, well not really but it was on the way back to work. I came to the realization that I should probably just by the candy wholesale and it would save me some money. I just can't get enough of those Nestle' Crunch caramel filled chocolate bars. Definitely try them the next time you are in a candy store. Have a good afternoon!!

I feel like IceCubeIsBoss, making more than one entry in a day. Perhaps I should refer to my favorite band, too. The seven one one I go to is also the place where I have purchased One Sweet Whirled, which is the Dave Matthews Band ice cream.

Peace
-Keeg

T3

It's back to work today, yippee!! It turns out the project I was working on last week has moved into phase to, so after starting with 471 databases I am now down to 272 to go through and catalog. It looks to be an interesting week, luckily I may take Friday off and go up skiing. I don't want to miss Hoot night at Suds since it will be "the pilots" farewell night. I am waiting to see what the weather will be like first, but the long range forecast looks promising.

What to put in the LJ? Hmmmmmmmm, oh yeah how about a movie review. Saturday was a short skiing day and we ended up driving to Berlin, NH to see Old School. Let me start by saying the theater was totally sketch, it looked like an old abandoned building. The people inside were nice and the cost of a matinee was only four dollars so it was all good. We went into the theater which kind of felt like The Majestic very old fashioned. We were the only people seeing the movie which was nice because we could comment out loud instead of waiting until the end. Okay so on to the movie, now I didn't have high expectations and the movie certainly lived up to my expectations. Now I will admit it was a funny movie and I did laugh, but the funny scenes were few and far between. The story was weak, they tried to put a college humor film inside a romantic comedy. I also found the tests the fraternity had to pass to remain in business were far fetched and not believable. For example to demonstrate success in athletics they had to do gymnastics, WTF. The previews led me to believe there would be more fraternity hijinks, but the shenanigans were very abbreviated and the true love story and life of middle aged men dominated the entire film. I am not so upset that I want my four dollars back, but I did feel slightly deceived by the trailer. So go see it at your own risk. I miss doing movie reviews, this was fun.


I will go in this way
And find my own way out
I won't tell you to stay
But I'm coming to much more
-David John Matthews
#41

Sweet Commute

Finally I had a nice commute, with little traffic and perfect cheap parking. I tried taking a different route to the T and it worked out much better than my typical route. It had fewer stop lights and less traffic, I left the house at 5:55AM and arrived at work by 7:05AM. It sure beats the commuter rail total one way of two hours. So I am content with my commute this morning.

I am extremely tired though because it has been a busy week and waking up so I can leave at 5:55AM has really knocked me on my ass. After work last night I went to the Simons IMax 3D theater at the New England Aquarium to see the Cirque Du Soleil: Journey of Man show. The theater was amazing and the 3D is unbelievable, the show we saw was great, though I felt it could have been a little bit longer. I definitely want to go back and check out some other shows there. After the show I headed straight home and was in bed last night by 9:15, but ended up getting a phone call around 10:00 which lasted for a good thirty minutes, thanks CK. However once getting off the phone I went right back to sleep.

I am so glad the weekend is almost here, it sounds like there will be rain down here, so most of you will be happy about that I am sure. The good news for me though is hearing that some forecasters are predicting up to a foot of snow in the mountains. Woohoo, nice pseudo powder day on Sunday morning, really lookin forward to it.

Y'all have a great weekend, and I'll see you on the other side.

Four more exits
To my apartment
But I am tempted
To keep the car in drive
And leave it all behind

-John Mayer
Complete lyrics to Why Georgia?

Thinking of a new concept

Howdy everybody!

Yep I know I missed a posting yesterday, but I figured rather than make a posting about nothing. Not that I have much more to say today, but I wanted to get out there and keep all my peeps informed. I also came up with something for all of the Boc's, I created a livejournal just for y'all, so if anybody feels like they want to make an entry, they can just post to a separate journal. If you want to post to the bocano livejournal just email me for the username and password. If you already have an LJ you can just add yourself to the bocano community or email me and tell me to add you to the community. I am still learning how to do the community thing, but I will keep you posted as I get time to figure it out.

I know in general people don't tend to answer LJ questions, but a question came up last night. What would you do if you had a million dollars? I know its a lame one, but I am curious what people would actually do.


Just a quick note, they were talking about a new beverage out there called dnL, which if you look closely is just 7-Up upside-down. I thought it was weird and I can't wait to give it a try.

Maddox's latest comments about Iraq

WOW!!

Gravedigger
When you dig my grave
Could you make it shallow
So that I can feel the rain
-David John Matthews
Gravedigger

Thinking of a new concept

Howdy everybody!

Yep I know I missed a posting yesterday, but I figured rather than make a posting about nothing. Not that I have much more to say today, but I wanted to get out there and keep all my peeps informed. I also came up with something for all of the Boc's, I created a livejournal just for y'all, so if anybody feels like they want to make an entry, they can just post to a separate journal. If you want to post to the bocano livejournal just email me for the username and password. If you already have an LJ you can just add yourself to the bocano community or email me and tell me to add you to the community. I am still learning how to do the community thing, but I will keep you posted as I get time to figure it out.

I know in general people don't tend to answer LJ questions, but a question came up last night. What would you do if you had a million dollars? I know its a lame one, but I am curious what people would actually do.


Just a quick note, they were talking about a new beverage out there called dnL, which if you look closely is just 7-Up upside-down. I thought it was weird and I can't wait to give it a try.

Maddox's latest comments about Iraq

WOW!!

Gravedigger
When you dig my grave
Could you make it shallow
So that I can feel the rain
-David John Matthews
Gravedigger

I just can't help it, SNOW!!!

I know the only thing everybody will be talking about today is the snowstorm and as much as I want to avoid talking about it, I gotta at least mention it. So we got some snow, okay, more like a ton of snow. It is unbelievable how back on December 3, 2002 in the LiveJournal I mentioned how I wished we had snow like in the 70's and I guess the old saying, Be careful what you wish for it just may come true comes into play. For the record Boston received 23.6 inches from this storm, the storm is in the top five in recorded history with regards to snowfall totals.Start RevisionThe total snow was actually 27.5 inches making the snowfall amount in Boston higher than any storm since records were first kept in 1892. So some day you can tell your kids all about the biggest snowstorm to hit Boston in over 100 years. End Revision I was walking through Downtown Crossing(DTC) this morning and it was so quiet, I just started whistling and it echoed through the vacant streets. It made me happy and actually for once enjoy the city. The commute wasn't bad, here or on the way home from Maine last night since they didn't really get anything from this storm anyway.

I have another weather-centric story to tell from this weekend in Maine. Let me just start by saying it was COLD this weekend. I had never skiied when the temperature was below zero, until this weekend. Saturday and Sunday both started off well below zero. I was smart and didn't ski for the entire day and made sure to take breaks, but it didn't stop me from getting a little frost bite, as you can see in the picture.

I have been told to keep moisturizing it and it will be okay. Boy would I be excited to have a scar on my face, because I didn't cover up my face while skiing. On the bright side the skiing was excellent and I am beginning to notice how the 37 days so far this year have really improved my skiing. It makes me excited for the warmer temperatures and softer snow.

Gotta mention that despite the snow the staff of Finagle a Bagel, showed up today and helped get my day off to a great start. Let's just hope I can build on it.

Oh, life it seems a struggle between
What we think what we see
-David John Matthews
Check out lyrics or listen to Seek Up.

Valentine's Day a Hallmark holiday, I think not

Recently many people have commented to me that Valentine's Day is just a Hallmark holiday and I am here today to refute this idea. First of all lets go back and look at the history of Valentine's Day. You can go to the site and read it but basically Emperor Claudius II of Rome decided single men fight better so he outlawed marriage for his young soldiers. St. Valentine disagreed with this and continued to perform marriages. For his actions St. Valentine was sentenced to death. Of course whether this story is true is questionable, but it is certainly one of the tales of the origin of the holiday. The holiday was officially declared for February 14 around 498 A.D. by Pope Gelasius, there are several reasons for its placement in February that can be seen at the link above. The oldest Valentine still in existence was written by Charles, Duke of Orleans in 1415, it is still is in the British Library in London, England. Valentines were first sent in America in the early 1700's and today over one billion cards are sent each year. Now for a history of Hallmark. Hallmark was started by Joyce Hall and his brothers sometime around 1908. Now how could a holiday which started over 1400 years before Hallmark was even created be considered a Hallmark holiday. Of course you can argue that it isn't that they made it up, but that they exploit it and we only celebrate it because they sell the cards. I think we celebrate most of our holidays because of the excellent marketing skills of the huge corporations of the USA. Isn't St. Patricks day the same way, except instead of the card companies causing the huge to do it is the bars instead? So to all of you who don't like to celebrate Valentine's Day, you should definitely refrain from going out and drinking on Monday March 17. I mean would you normally go out and drink on a Monday night? It brings up a larger question of why do we have holidays in the first place, is it because we need extra days off. Do people really think about the pilgrims who got together with some Native Americans almost 400 years ago on Thanksgiving? Are we really celebrating the birth of Christ on Christmas or have we just fallen prey to the marketing whores? Could somebody please define what holidays I am supposed honor and which holidays are to be dismissed?

Honestly it doesn't really make a difference to me, but I figured lets see if we can get some discussion going. My theory is why should I love somebody anymore in the middle of February then I would the rest of the year. My friend oscar also has a theory about Valentine's Day, he says, "Valentine's Day is like a tax on gettin some." So what does everybody think about today?

For all you VDay haters, I saw some footage on the news today from India of some people tearing apart a card store. They were doing it in protest of Valentine's day and it was a riot(literally). Apparently they didn't have Valentines so sad. Check out the story.

Well have a great weekend and if you are pro VDay have fun if not well I guess just have a regular Friday night.

Instead of including all of the lyrics I will just provide a link to the full song for today, Be Mine
Lyrics for Be Mine by David Gray.
Listen to Be Mine by David Gray

Couple A Things

Howdy y'all!! I will start with a little recap of BoCaNO, which was at The Black Rhino. It was odd because we were the only people eating upstairs and the waitress just hung around almost chaperoning for the entire evening. How strange? Oh I did a little research on the actual Black Rhino animal and it turns out they aren't pygmy sized but in fact are the third largest land animal behind the Elephant and White Rhino.

Black Rhino Information

After eating we headed across the street to The Place, the ratio of guys to girl was the opposite of the ratio at last Saturday's Vet Senior Banquet. I think there were two women before we arrived, I don't really like those odds. Service there was lacking, but while hanging out this question was presented: If you could do any job and pay didn't matter what would you do? A lot of people just blurted out answers without much thought, for instance I said I would be a computer programmer, which I honestly think is the case. So what would you be, if you could have any job?

Now onto another topic. I have had many inquiries about the mysterious LJster
IceCubeIsBoss none of the BoC's no who he is and were wondering "what's his deal?". I honestly don't know enough to be confident in posting a biography, but if Mr. Cube would be kind enough to post a brief biography as a comment I would be most grateful. Click here to check out his LJ.

Countin down the hits. The last topic for today, well I think, is about Marche, which is at the Prudential Center. If you don't know what it is I will try to describe it. Basically you receive your "passport" and enter the restaurant, which is set up like a Mediterranean market, well so they say. So first you find a table and then head to the different shops to pick out your dinner. The shops are set up one for different kinds of food. For example you can get pizza, pasta, fish, desserts, drinks and a ton of other things. After you order your food at a shop, they stamp your "passport" and you move on to your next shop. So it is kind of like a buffet, because you can go back as many times as you want. The catch is that each one of the stamps you get costs you more money, so it is very possible that when all is said and done and you go to pay, the bill is bound to be higher than you think it will be. It is a bit confusing at first, but overall it is a great concept. The other part that I want to point out for Britt and crew is that they are open from 7AM - 2AM seven days a week, you guys should definitely check it out.

And all the little ants are marching
Red and black antennas waving
-David John Matthews
Complete lyrics to Ants Marching

Waiting for bagels!!!

The picture above is sure to be the scene very soon at work because once again we are getting some free food. They will be providing us with bagels and orange juice this morning. Fortunately for the group I will not be helping to select the orange juice this time and most of it will probably be the NO PULP kind, but we don't need to have that debate again. I am looking forward to it because I am starting to get hungry and don't want to go outside since it is snowing AGAIN.

Since I have started driving to Malden again, the whole BoCaNO has become bittersweet I end up having to pay for dinner which is understandable, but also $18 for parking. In order to improve this financial situation I drove in extra early and parked in the $3 fixed rate lot at Oak Grove. I think it might actually be worth the trouble of waking up twenty minutes earlier for half the price of my normal garage and no need to worry about making it back to the car by 7:00PM. How convenient that they wanted me to be into work early on a Wednesday, finally something goes right for me.

The content that was formerly here has been removed due to its unneccessary nature. I kind of did one of my type before thinking things and regretted it. Thankfully I am able to fix these situations when they occur in the LJ as opposed to when I send an email that perhaps should have been screened before hitting the send button. I always forget the first rule of netiquette which is to wait 24 hours before writing a emotion heavy email. So peace to all! The bagels was yummy!!


So what, so I've got a smile on
But it's hiding the quiet superstitions in my head
Don't believe me
When I say I've got it down
-John Mayer

Complete lyrics to Why Georgia?

Micro Curbs In

On the way to work today I realized I had to make an addition to my Micro-Macro Mood Theory (MMMT). For those of you non financial market readers in the stock market there are circuit breaker measures set up to prevent the stock market from falling too far too fast. For example for the current quarter if the Dow falls 850 points before 2PM trading will be halted for an hour to allow people to stop and think about why they are selling. I am going to add this to micro moods, if a person feels there micro mood has dropped more than two points within a relatively short amount of time there should be a curb in all activity contributing to the change for at least three hours. If that person is on IM they should put up an away message and it should say "Micro Curbs In". Since a higher micro is good there is no need to take precautions and the positive activity should continue especially if you are on your way to a micro of 10 ;o)

Now I turn to you all for help, not with my mood or anything but with a work issue. At work we have nine groups within the larger group and we foolishly refer to the groups by the name of the manager, now this is fine and makes it somewhat clear as to what group you are referring to, but if the manager changes we must update numerous applications to accomodate for the change. Yesterday I came up with the idea of naming the groups, but we can't seem to come up with a good way of naming them. Some ideas I have had are to name them after: gemstones, elements and trees. So this is where y'all come in, help me come up with some more names? The only requirment I have is that there must be at least 12 names in the group and they should be able to be abbreviated and none of the elements should start with the same letter to make the abbreviation easier.

What I want is what I've not got
But what I need is all around me
Reaching searching never stop
-David John Matthews
Complete lyrics to Jimi Thing

Time off from skiing

I got a break from skiing this past weekend, I certainly missed it and it was the first weekend I didn't ski since November, but my body is thanking me. Many of you might think I took the break because of the Utah trip, but actually I ended up going to the Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine Senior Banquet for V '03, which the students actually refer to as "The Prom". Insert Keegan Prom Jokes Here. I am going to keep it short since it involves a part of my personal life, I like to keep out of the LJ, but at the same time the rest of the world has to hear about this event. Okay for the most part it is kind of like any semi formal event, there is your basic buffet, a cash bar, dressed up people, tons of table, a live band(okay, typically there is a DJ) and all of the other stuff you find at proms and corporate holiday parties. However that is where the similarities come to an end. After dinner, which by the way was excellent, the slideshow of the current seniors is shown, now of course I didn't understand most of it due to the high incidence of inside vet student humor, but most of the time, you couldn't help but laugh at some of the stories. After the slide show came the videos, now once again there were a lot of inside jokes, but some of the ideas were great. The themes were as follows 11 Steps to Anatomy(V '06), the Sound of Music vet school style(V '05), Mission Impossible: Spay lab(V '04) and Fear Factor: vet school edition(V '03). The videos ere hilarious, of course they had the feel of a college video made for a project, but of course since these are the smart kids, the ideas they had were great. My favorite was probably the Fear Factor, but the Sound of Music songs were funny, they should release a soundtrack. I could go on forever about the videos, but well I am probably beginning to bore you already, such short attention spans. Next came the music, which was a live band with two singers, a bass, a guitar, keyboards, a sax player and of course drums, the band covered a variety of songs all night and were very good, I think there name was Soho. Now I have a question for the readers, is a live cover band better than a dj? The band was great, but the argument that the DJ could provide even more variety at a lower price is also quite valid.

My final observation about the banquet came to me while I was dancing up a storm. I looked around and realized I was surrounded by a ton of girls. I just laughed because of the immense inequity in numbers between guys and girls. It was unbelievable and I almost wanted to call Oscar and tell him about my discovery. I would have to say when dancing it was like one guy with six girls. Even looking at the tables they seated probably about eight people and two or three of those seats were occupied by guys and the rest by girls. I guess I shouldn't be surprised I knew the ratio should be about 90/10, but to actually see it was just plain overwhelming. Perhaps I should start a dating service, because there are plenty of single guys in Boston. Maybe a mixer type activity halfway between Grafton and Boston, hmmmmmm.

Well that was my Saturday night, tons of fun and lots of dancing. Overall a great weekend and it was also nice to have a break from skiing. Now it is time to get to work.

I walk into this room
All eyes on me now
But I do not know the people inside
-David John Matthews
Complete lyrics to What You Are

Friday Special

TGIF!! I know it has been a short week, but I am still exhausted. So today I am going to leave the LJ up to Rendezvous Casualties. Have a great weekend everybody.
Chronicles of Rendezvous Casualties

Okay, so its been awhile since I wrote one of these stories and I told Keegs I would do this more often. And it just so happens he is gettting back from the wild West so he is probably busy with work, and I have a nagging question that I have heard on my last two dates.

I had a second date Tuesday night with a guy I met last November and we had a good first date, then the holidays and vacations got in the way. So needless to say a few months later we have our second date. It was great, dinner at Rattlesnake (ps. there menu changed and its horrible now) drinks at West Street Grille, a movie (The Recruit -ok at best) and then some jazz, chat and water at his apt. Good conversation lots in common, but that is not the point. So on Wednesday he instant messages me we chat for awhile. And then he types "I cant believe you dont have a boyfriend, you are pretty, funny, smart, and have a lot going for you, you must be picky."

Two weeks ago, I went home for my brother's birthay bonfire party. Where I happened run into a guy I had a crush on in junior high, well it turns out he had one on me too. He just moved back to the area from Colorado, and we spent most of the night catching up. We agreed that on Sunday we would go skiing together. Again great time, but that is not the point. He procedes to ask "Are you sure you dont have a boyfriend. I would of thought by sure you would. You are cute, live in Boston, funny, and have good job."

I always thought this was a parent and family question and even a friend question. But what does it mean when a guy on or after a date asks you this????? And what exactly do you answer, "would you like to apply for the job?"

So here goes the girl part about thinking to much about things. Does the question mean they are interested and want to make sure that you aren't taken? they are trying to figure out what is wrong with you because there must be a reason if no one else has snatched you up for himself? they dont want to be your boyfriend, but maybe they should appear like they have an interest? is it a compliment or not?

I mean really I dont get it. Cant a guy say "I had a good/great time with you and like to see you again, let so out on xyz. I think your pretty funny, cute, and smart." I mean if a girl asked this question to a guy, he would probably think she was psycho.

So please fill me in on what this means and how a girl should answer.

It's good to be back in Boston

Well we made it back and I am now sitting at my computer at work, my view is not quite the same as at Solitude in the above picture, but you can't have everything. I am feeling quite refreshed and ready to get back into the LiveJournal scene. I wish I had a very LJesque story for you, I will tell you about the trip home and hopefully something will evolve.

Back to Boston
3:30 AM MST: I wake up in the clothes I plan on wearing all day in order to save time. My bags are packed and the adrenaline is pumping because I will be home before to long.
4:35 AM MST: We check in our baggage and this time are not charged $80 for the skis, the woman behind the counter is actually nice and asks us how the skiing was. Boy people in Utah sure are nice.
6:12 AM MST: After deicing we prepare for take off, I am stuck in the middle seat on the plane, which really sucks, since I like to look out the window. I am just amazed at how everything looks from the sky.
10:30 AM CST: Time is beginning gets one hour closer to normal. The landing in Chicago was uneventful and due to my middle seat I wasn't able to get a good view of Chi-town, I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the Sears Tower, oh well I am just going to have to check out some other time.
11:00 AM CST: After sitting at gate H16, I notice that without telling us the gate for the connecting flight has moved to K4. Thanks for the announcement American Airlines. Fortunately K4 is right next to the food court, where I purchased some nasty mexican food, why don't I learn to just stick with pizza, it was Chicago.
12:15 PM CST: Sitting in the middle seat again the pilot announces that the stairs are stuck to the plane or something and we will be delayed for 15 minutes.
3:15 PM EST: Approaching Boston I glance out the window and the first thing I recognize is the Charles River followed by a tiny sized Prudential Center. We fly out over the Atlantic and turn back towards Logan before touching down successfully in good old Massachusetts.
3:30 PM EST: My mom is standing outside the security checkpoint waiting for me. Awwwww how cute! We went down to wait for our baggage and stood there in front of the belt for a good twenty minutes before we realized our baggage arrived on an earlier flight and was sitting on the floor next to the baggage claim.
4:00 PM EST: After spending eight days with my friends we part ways, could anybody imagine spending eight days straight with me, it is amazing they were still talking to me on IM this morning.
5:00 PM EST: I finally arrive home and begin the tedious process of unpacking and all the fun that comes along with traveling. After finally showering and finally shaving again, my brother notifies me that I screwed up my laundry and all of my whites are now grey.
6:40 PM EST: Get a fresh new haircut, sticking with the Brokaw from the get go this time.
8:00 PM EST: Pizza for dinner and some catching up on the LJ's and other internet sites.
10:00 PM EST: Bed time finally after a long day.

If you made it this far, you can check out some pictures in the Utah Ski Trip Album Its good to be back, hope to receive some comments.

From the dark side we can see a glow of something bright
There's much more than we see here
-David John Matthews
Complete lyrics to Pig

Best Ski Day EVER!!!!!!

Okay I know you all are sick and tired of hearing about skiing and I think too bad for you. Today we got up and packed all our stuff to prepare for the long trip home. We ended up leaving the house around eight and were going to go to Snowbasin, but after checking out the road map found it was too far away. We thought a little bit and decided to go to Alta instead, we went there last Thursday and it was pretty cool so we figured what the heck, its only a $40 lift ticket. There was a possible problem though, since Alta is up the Little Cottonwood Canyon, it is sometimes closed during snow storms, but lucky for us the road was open. We arrived and they had already received about six inches of snow overnight. The snow report said that since Saturday they had a total of 33 inches. So we suited up and headed for the lift.

Let me just say it was UNBELIEVABLE. We hopped on the sketchy double chair without a bar, Alta doesn't believe in safety bars or snowboarders for that matter. Upon arrival at the top, we headed down towards the base into over a foot of powder. We ended up making fresh tracks into over a foot of snow, it was incredible. The snow was just piling up in front of me and blowing in my face, I was covered from head to toe and I hadn't even fallen down. If you could only have seen the smile on my face, I couldn't stop laughing because it was just unbelievable. At some points the snow was up to waist deep and you just had to keep plowing on down the hill.

After a couple of runs I lost the group and my radio battery went dead so I was forced to ski solo for a few hours. I ended up going all over the place and found a ton of trails with the waist deep snow and untouched powder. It was heaven. I have never and skiied in such amazing conditions, even on the last run of the day I was able to find a trail where a couple fresh lines were still possible. Today made me dread going back to Sunday River. It will be so lame, I don't every want to ski on groomed terrain again. The skiing today alone made the entire trip worth it, I just can't say enough. Pictures will be online by Thursday, be sure to check back and see what I have been up to.

Final note: Even though today was amazing I do have this strange longing to return to the 'Bury. It is really weird, I love being away, but can't wait to go back home, to drive my car, see the family and oddly enough get back to work. Have a great night and let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Aspiration Adjustment

When I was a kid I had all this grand aspirations. As i sit here in this cube, it's not that bad. I mean it sucks, but my attitude is getting better. Anyhow so I sit here and I was thinking that if I could possibly afford a house with ample parking. Huh!! pretty sweet. I want to find a house near a T stop so I can bilk an extra $50 a month out of people in need of parking. That is what I want to do. It's been that way for a while. Now I just started my real estate career and true most of these people are total assholes, but you know what. They are conscencious, proffesional, and organized. They even have clean clothes on. Now I'm all for a big corporation I get great benefits etc, but I do have to "tuff it out with the tards" for a good part of the day.
The other thing is that you encounter buyers sellers and other agents brokers that are the absolute worst. Just unscrupulous evil people, but you know what they want? They want some money. The people here just want to hang for a few hours, cause daytime tv sucks. What are you going to do. I just applied for a new position I hope all goes well. I'm sure it will be a case of same s different building, but change is good, so is interviewing. Everytime you meet someone it's an interview it's silly not to practice and get your butt out and do it. The more comfortable you are the better you'll do.

Powder Day

After taking a day off yesterday, we got up to the mountain bright and early. Part of our incentive was the snow we received overnight and the anticipated 10-18 we were to receive over the course of the day. The skiing was amazing Mark and I took our first run under the lift and we made fresh tracks, first two down the trail. The skiing only got better as the day went on, a couple of times we hiked up to the top of the mountain so we could get some more fresh tracks in about a foot of powder, the hike was tough, but well worth it. The second time down we did powder 8's it was just like in the ski movies. Overall the conditions were better than anything I had ever skiied in before. Just cruising down steeps in powder was unbelievable, this is what I came out here for and it has lived up to all of my expectations.

So we are going out to dinner tonight, since we don't really have much food left in the condo. I am looking forward to some pizza. I hope y'all are doing well back at home. Looks like it will be a warm day tomorrow in Boston, so enjoy. Hopefully the worst is over.

No Skiing Today

It is Keeg checking in again from Utah. A chain of events occurred allowing me to write this today. First I went to Wal-Mart to look for the new David Gray album, but couldn't find it. To all you music fans out there never move to Park City there isn't a music store for thirty miles. Anyway at Wal-Mart I saw an installer disk for AOL and realized I still have an account. So I installed it on my PC and now have internet access, yippee. The only problem is that it is super slow, because it is dial up. Thankfully typing into the LJ goes at my speed.

Okay on to my day, I woke up this morning after another restless night of sleep. We began to get ready for skiing for the fourth day in a row and I decided to turn the TV on and my day then began a downward spiral into the world of Breaking News. We turned the news on within an hour of the tragic Columbia space shuttle accident. For the next three hours we watched as more and more video came in and the details of the disaster became clear. At about 10:30 we decided to cancel the day of skiing and head into Park City for lunch. We had some pizza and then walked the streets of PC, where there were several interesting things including guys with the giant Ricola horns and a live rock band. The search for the David Gray CD continued and once again we failed to find it. I did try a Krispy Kreme donut and wasn't too impressed though they were quite light and fluffy.

Finally we went bowling in this hick town in the middle of nowhere. It was pretty funny, it felt like a movie where city folk get stranded in a country town. We totally didn't fit in, but we had a good time anyway.

Well everybody have a great night and in the words of Tom Brokaw.
"Hug your kids tonight."