a history of me

As Mondays go, yesterday wasn't half bad. I suppose that's an empty statement coming from a guy who doesn't have work or school. The weather was pleasant and breezy. I met my buddy Mike for dinner down in Chelsea. We sat down in Cafeteria, one of my favorites. I actually ordered something a little fancier than normal: a grilled salmon BLT. Mike and I talked and just relaxed which did me a lot of good. I don't exactly feel relaxed at home because, well, I can't get into that here.

Mike and I hung out there for a long time and then made our way cross-town to Union Square. As we walked we talked about the annoyance of advertising buzzwords like HEMI and we quietly recited the silly rap song that we had written and performed with our friends. Once at the Square there was a pretty skilled jazz trio playing in the SW corner of the park and (as always) some guy with a megaphone shouting near the statue of GW. We discussed the possibility of meeting this Saturday before parting. I really hope we make that happen because I take great relief in spending time with my friends.

Once back at home I assumed I was in for the evening but out of the blue Joe called and he wanted to drive down and have a few drinks. He lives kind of far from here so we didn't hit the streets until after 1AM. This may be the city that never sleeps but it's pretty damn tired after midnight on Mondays. Many of the bars and restaurants were already closed. Our first stop was a real Japanese izakaya on 53rd street. Joe and I split a bottle of sake while admiring the pre-war beer advertisements featured on the walls. The bottle was really cool by itself, it was glass with kind of pocket blown into the side. If I had bought myself a digital camera I would show you a picture.

We walked down second avenue and stopped at Murphy's Pub for one round of Guinness. There was an unusually long delay between ordering our drinks and receiving them, until I realized they were actually doing the whole "slow pour" method to create that giant head Guinness is famous for. After drinking our pints we went a few blocks down to check out the Manchester (which someone had recommended) but much to my surprise they were closed already. It was only 2-something!

We stopped into another place but I was so sleepy/buzzed I don't remember where it was or what we ordered. They had pretzels which we devoured and there was one very sloshed woman inside. She was flirting with me but she never got past complimenting my hat (the Skimmer), in particular the feather in the band. I suppose I could have reciprocated but I think she needed a nap very badly. The bartender was watching Rugby on the HDTV and Joe and I struggled to decipher the rules. The sport was so alien to us despite the resemblance to football.

We parted ways sometime after 3 and I fell asleep pretty quickly. I almost slept through my dermatology appointment this morning! No big news by the way, just new ointments/creams to try and she told me what everyone has told me for the past twenty years: I need to lose weight.