The holiday party Friday night was better than I expected.  I
would say I had a good time and we had fun although that was my first
legit secret santa swap and the way it worked was everyone got a number
and as each person went, you had the option of stealing someone else’s
present or picking something new from under the tree.  I was
second to last so I pretty much had the pick of the litter and I ended
up stealing someone’s lottery tickets they got ($15 worth of $1 scratch
offs) although in the end, I only won $6. 

On Saturday I
went to my “free lunch” at the sushi place.  Why did I put it in
quotes? Because the idiot who was supposed to pay for the lunch never
showed up!  This morning I get an email from him saying that at
10:30am on Saturday to call him by noon on Saturday to my work
email.  Umm, dude, we set up the time and date and I gave you a
list of people coming….I think it’s safe to assume we’re going to be
there. 

Saturday night I went to Foxwoods, lost $60 at
the roulette table (26 just never hit for me) and then saw George
Carlin that night.  It was a good show but I didn’t think he was
that great (maybe because his old material is just gold). 

So I got a bill from my hometown for taxes on my car for the year for $250   Excuse me?  Since when do I pay for my car just being there?  What a scam!

Holiday flash cartoon of the day

Song of the Day: Barry Gordon – Nuttin’ For Christmas

If indeed my worst fears are realized, I wanted to put my emotions down
on “paper” before the feelings I have have to be buried somewhere in
the recesses of my mind.  (I’ll probably think of another half
dozen as soon as I post this) In fact, this was something I probably
should have done a while ago but it just goes to show you how much I
still want to be with her.

I love how you wish for snow but clearly can’t stand the cold
I love how don’t give me the satisfaction anymore of laughing at my jokes even when they’re funny
I love how you wanted to hold my hand from the first time we met
I love how we were comfortable together in the most uncomfortable seats in that movie theater
I love how you and I fight about cutting your hair
I love how you get cold when it’s 70 degrees out
I love how you have 7 comforters
I love how you have 7 comforters and are still cold
I love how you complain we never take pictures of each other and then always forget to
I love how you try to put my collar down when I like wearing it up
I love when we listen to our song
I love how you don’t want me going out to drink
I love how I can be myself when I’m with you
I love how you’re my perfect match
I love how when the phone rings and I see it’s you I still get butterflies in my stomach
I love how you taught me what it means to love someone
I love your smile
I love how you always just called me Matthew
I love your laugh
I love hearing your voice
I love how you don’t hog the covers
I love how you remind me of the things I need to do
I love when I get a call from you in the middle of the day for no reason
I love how you can start talking all about the O.C. and go on forever
I love how you don’t let anyone influence your musical tastes
I love how you won’t let me spend money on you
I love how you refuse to call your apartment a dorm
I love how still haven’t met some people from the site despite being down there for months
I love how proud you are of being from Georgia
I love how you still think you’re “Connecticuter”
I love being able to talk to you before I go to bed at night
I love how I can be the most pissed off person on earth and hearing your voice brings me back down
I love how you sometimes act like my dog is more important than me
I love how you can’t get enough Broadway
I love how you refuse to let me sing
I love how when I wake up you’re the first thing I think of
I love how you try to correct my lyrics when I sing between uncontrollable laughter
I love how you act around little kids
I love how anytime I see/read/hear something that occurs below the Mason Dixon line, I think of you
I love how you get quiet when you blush
I love how you want lots of Disney pin trading pins but refuse to trade them away
I love how you think Wal-Mart is your home away from home
I love how you looked up the laws in every state between Georgia and Connecticut regarding relations with a minor
I love how you’re “legal” now
I love how you’re afraid to drive on the highway
I love how you think it’s cute I still call my mom “mommy”
I love how you wanted to tell off any girl I mentioned in passing
I love how you yell at me for shopping at Express
I love how you call me in the middle of the night just to leave me a message
I love how all of your friends, most of which I’ve never met, know all about me
I love knowing when you’re rolling your eyes at me over the phone/internet
I love how you value your family
I love how I still have no idea what Rent is about even after you’ve explained it to me two or three times
I love when you yell at me to clean my apartment and keep it clean
I love how you claim you’re hungry and eat barely anything
I love that days after I’ve seen you I can still smell your perfume on my clothes
I love the pillow you made me
I love thinking about our future life together
I love when my work phone rings and I know it’s you before I pick up the phone
I love being able to tell people about you and how much I love you
I love talking to you on the phone
I love how I’m making this list and don’t want to stop if only because I don’t want to leave anything out
I love how I fall in love with at first sight everytime I see you
I love your dorky away messages
I love seeing an IM waiting for me from you
I love how happy you are when I tell you a reason or two why I love you
I love how you love Friendly’s
I love how you tolerate my obsession with Waffle House
I love how I can’t get sick from you no matter how sick you are
I love how you were one of the first people I got to drive in my new car with
I love when people ask me about you
I love telling you a story that you had to be there to find funny
I love knowing you’re the one for me
I love how you and I are the only one’s who are regularly friends or enemies of Leslie, depending on how she feels
I
love how I was able to compile this list off the top of my head in just
an hour or two and how I’m afraid I’m going to forget something big
I love how you had your nails done the first time we met and suffered through having them removed, all just for me
I love how you’re the only one who can truely make me happy
I love how when I hear a love song on the radio, I always think of you
I love when you get excited to see me
I love that you love me
I love you

Song of the Day: Bobby Vinton – I Love How You Love Me

I’m looking forward to another good weekend coming up.  Tonight
I’m going to Long Island to have dinner with my family to celebrate my
grandma’s 80th birthday.  We were all supposed to go to this
resort out in the Hamptons but my uncle died the other day so it didn’t
seem fitting to go do all that.  So instead we’re going to dinner
tonight and coming home much later tonight.  Tomorrow I’m going to
IKEA with my neighbor Layla because there’s supposed to be a pretty big
sale going on (15% off everything) and I need a futon allready.  We shall see if anything floats my boat (or my checking account). 

Saturday
night I’m hoping for some more boozing with Staci and Layla said she’d
probably come by as well.  Peter told me it’s gonna be a big night
tomorrow because evidently New Haven celebrates Halloween tomorrow but
the problem is I’d need to get a costume if I wanted to really go out
with them.  To be honest, I’m not going to be losing any sleep not
being able to go out with Pete’s Yale friends but is there an easy
costume to pull off in such a short amount of time?  I think I
still have the major elements of my old Justin Timberlake costume
(minus the fact I’d need to grow out my goatee in 36 hours).  As
long as I go out and find a way to dull my heart a bit with booze, I’ll
be fine.

Speaking of my Justin Timberlake costume, my dad
basically accused me of being gay the other day when he was throwing
some stuff out and came across my silver belt from the costume. 
He was like “Why do you have a silver belt?”  with a very
concerned look (and when an Israeli is concerned, it means he’s yelling
at you).  I told him it was from a costume and haven’t worn it
since.  That soothed the beast for the most part.

Sunday is
my uncle’s funeral so assuming I’m not too shitfaced, I’ll go out to
Queens and pay my respect.  Of course, all of this is totally
subject to change and knowing my luck, I’ll end up sitting at home
Saturday night trying to find something on tv to watch.

Song of the Day:  Elvis Presley – A Fool Such as I

On my way up to my apartment yesterday the real estate agent who works
in my building (who sold me my apartment) called me into his office and
asked me if I would vote Democrat in an election.  I told him I
would and he told me about this local candidate who is running for
office for our area and asked if I would go vote for him (or is it her?
I dont remember).  So I re-registered to vote for New Haven and
next week I have to find some time to do my civic duty and vote.

What
I’m really amazed by is the incumbent is a Yale grad student. 
What the hell? I want to be a local representative.  That could
begin my acension to ruler of this planet, starting with local
Connecticut representative.  How cool would that be?  And to
win one of these dumb little elections, all you need is like 100 people
to come out and vote for you.  I must figure out a way to make
this work.  Vote Matt in 2006!

Pictures from the Marlins game on Monday

Song of the Day: Kanye West – Gold Digger

I made my first friend in my building yesterday.  I was coming
home from work and got into an apartment and there was this girl in
there (came up from the basement).  So being the wonderful social
person I am, I totally ignored her.  I hit my floor and the
elevator went up.  Turns out we both got out on the same floor.
Super, but I still didn’t say anything. So I walk to my apartment and
start unlocking my door when she says “Did you just move in?” Turns out
she lives in the apartment across from me.  She’s a senior (or was
it junior?) at Yale and has been living there for going on 3 years
now.  She seemed pretty nice and we had a 2 minute conversation in
the hall.  Her name is Layla and it sounded familiar to me at the
time but when I got back in my apartment, I remembered the Eric Clapton
song.  So I’m happy to know somebody in my building.

Today
is September 1st and that means my one year anniversary at work is
rapidly approaching (September 7).  What a difference a year
makes. 

Today I’m heading to Costco with my parents so
I’ll be stocking up on bottled water and other things I’m too cheap to
buy for myself.  Thank you mommy.

Song of the Day: Eric Clapton – Layla

I did very little this weekend.  I basically, ate, slept, let the
dog out, and played Battlefield 2.  Ridiculous? Maybe.  But I
was a happy camper.  The extra RAM was a god send so I was happy
playing my game all weekend long.  Alas, it’s back to the work
week and because I played it so much this weekend, I’m confident I wont
be obsessed with it while at work, like I was on Friday.  I’m just
happy my parents are coming back today so I can be done with “dog
duty”.  Plus I need someone to do my laundry allready.

This
week is really all about getting ready to move out on Saturday.  I
ordered Internet last week and this week need to setup electricity and
get a parking spot.  The real hard work is getting all my crap
together. Nevermind the stuff that has been sitting in my parent’s
garage for over a year, I have all the junk in my room that needs to be
rounded up.  I hate packing. Alot.

I have to leave work
early today to go to a doctor’s appointment.  Don’t worry, all is
well with me.  I just need more of the anti-anxiety pills for when
I fly.  I’ve tried avoiding using it but nothing has worked
(including alcohol) so I’ve decided to go back to the pills. 
There never was a reason to stop using them before, I just ran out of
them and my parents think it’s wrong to use them so I didn’t get a new
prescription.  Well fuck that. I need my pills. 

Song of the Day: Aerosmith – Walk This Way

Some of you didn’t enjoy yesterday’s post on here because it was one
line.  Many of those comments came from people who have blogs
themselves, yet haven’t updated them in months.  Anyway, it was
just one of those days where I sit down to write something interesting
and I’ve got nothing. Not even funny pictures or movies.  Besides,
another few people IM’ed me and informed me that they too are wearing
pink that day as well.

My parents finally called me from Israel
yesterday.  They left on Monday, didn’t bother to call me when
they landed or got to where they’re staying but when they finally did
call, they left me a voicemail to make sure I left the door unlocked so
the cleaning ladies could clean the house.  Glad to see they care
so much about me.

I finally remembered to order internet for my
apartment.  I decided to get DSL but the stupid phone company
informed me it would take about 3 weeks or so before everything would
be good to go (that’s 3 weeks after I moved in) plus they had all these
dumb surcharges and installation fees.  So I told them I needed to
“think about it” (that’s Matt code for “Fuck this, I’m out of here”)
and called the cable company. They ended up getting me faster service,
a date to have it up and running by the day after I move in and I had
to charge nothing (bill comes in the mail).  God bless you Comcast.

Do
you ever sleep so deeply that you wake up and try to figure out what
day it is, realize it’s a work day and are dissapointed for the rest of
the morning? 

This is too funny

42 days till Florida!

Song of the Day: AC/DC – T-n-T

Well I’ve put down the down payment on an apartment. The realtor called
me back from the building I mentioned last week and said a new unit was
coming on the market. Turns out it’s a bit better than the rest and
after some deliberating, I put the downpayment down on Saturday.  With
this, I’ll have the place on August 6th and then I’ll officially move
out and be on my own in the world.  That is a truely frightening
thought. First finishing college, now moving out, next is marriage!

At some point I need to go to IKEA or something and get some
furniture.  I need a futon/couch, coffee table and maybe a nice chair
(I’ve always wanted one of those nice black leather chairs).  Of
course, I may see the price of all of this and decide to just go wander
the streets for discarded furniture.

Note to self: Stop spending money! I have a ridiculous amount of money
going out in the next few weeks.  This whole apartment thing is going
to make me a very poor, poor boy.

Yesterday I went to Pete’s BBQ at his house.  He had the BBQ because
his family is selling his house and so it was a last hurrah.  I had a
good time in general but it was just as I expected it to be; Lots of
people from Med School that I don’t know, can’t talk to and I spent the
time talking to Eric (Pete’s brother) and his girlfriend.  Not like I
had anything better to do really but it was one of those parties you go
to just to be out and about. 

With my sister at summer camp in Israel for 2 weeks, this is the first
time since my other sister was born that it’s just me, my dad and my
mom. My mom calls it “different”. I call it the way it was meant to be.

Song of the Day: Lynyrd Skynyrd – Simple Man

Back to reality after a nice weekend off.  After work on Friday I
went into the city where I had to walk 20 blocks to go pick up tickets
for Saturdays game, then get on the subway and go to Shea.  I was
supposed to meet a guy from the Marlins website I go to but he didn’t
show so I got seats alone.  It wasn’t that bad and this guy next
to me was really funny (plus he even gave me food).  There was a
30 minute rain delay just before the game was to start but once the
rain stopped it really became a beautiful night.  I left at about
the 7th inning since the Marlins were losing and I figured I’d rather
spend my time drinking with Spock. 

I got back to the
city and met up with Spock near Pace at our old bar and that brought
back some memories.  I changed in the bar bathroom (not an
experience I’d recommend).  After that we met up with a friend
from the fraternity, drank some more and then proceeded to meet up with
Spock’s ex-girlfriend and her friends.  Spock was having a lovers
spat with his ex so it was just me and his girlfriend’s friends and
since they were both spoken for, we just drank and talked about dumb
crap.  By about 2am me and Spock went uptown to some bars (after a
pit stop at his place where we took some shots).  There Spock met
this “model” (or so she claims) and being the drunk moron he is, he
lost her phone number and was bitching about it for the rest of the
night.  We got some pizza (Gotta love late night drunk pizza
eating) and got back to his apartment at about 4am, but rather than go
to sleep, we decided to play Xbox.  We finally went to bed at
about 5am or so.

On Saturday, we grabbed a bagel and ate in
Madison Square Park and then I went to my baseball game.  I was
tired and slightly hungover so I wasn’t into cheering that much but lo
and behold, the Marlins actually won a game while I was in
attendance!  This makes the Marlins record when I’m in attendance
1-6 this year (last year they were like 4-1 when I was at the game). No
photos from this weekend because I forgot my camera at home.

The
rest of the weekend I spent doing absolutely nothing.  No one was
around and I was content for the most part sitting at home and playing
video games or watching TV. 

Song of the Day: Goo Goo Dolls – Big Machine

This weekend didn’t exactly go according to plan.  Friday I got to
the airport with no problem but the flight absolutely sucked.  It
was bumpy the entire time and there were at least 2 or 3 times I really
had one of those “Oh shit…” moments. Luckily, if you are gonna have
one of those kind of flights, it’s best to have it on a flight that’s
only an hour long.  I got into Baltimore in one piece and John and
Carrie picked me up.   That night we went into DC and met my
sister for dinner at this sandwich shop which was pretty good. 
After dinner, my sister left and the three of us went to the
game.  It was a great pitcher’s duel and ended up going 11 innings
before the Marlins lost.  Pictures from this game can be found here.

I
was supposed to fly back to CT on Saturday but John convinced me to
stay another day.  I decided to stay the day, cancel my flight and
Southwest lets you keep the credit to use for one year from the date
with no fee.  I woke up bright and early thanks to the “Riley
Alarm” that goes off at about 7am.  After breakfast we went to the
Mall in Columbia, did some light shopping, napped and then got ready
for the game that night.  For this game only John and I were going
to go (Carrie got her baseball fill for the next few years on Friday
night).  So we got tickets off Craigslist for dirt cheap (2nd row
upper deck) and watched the Marlins lost yet again.  Pictures from
this game can be found here.  So far this year, the Marlins are 0-4 when I’m in attendance.

Sunday
John and I hopped in the car and began driving home.  We made a
pit stop in possibly the nicest Waffle House and then high tailed it
all the way to CT.  We listened to a recording of the BBC radio
program “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” all the way up and it was a
really funny show so the time passed pretty well.  After getting
home we got dinner and then went up to Hartford to pickup my car (which
was still at the airport). 

Today I’m having lunch with
Joanne who is in CT taking her LSATs, which reminds me I have to call
her once I finish this entry.  Tonight I’ll probably spend some
time with John one way or another.

Song of the Day: Dusty Springfield – Wishin’ and Hopin’