What happened to this place? I’m dead again.
It’s not that I don’t still love me a good blog. It’s just that I am not so desperate to slow my brain turning to mush in a country that overstimulates me with cuter-ation and understimulates me with grammatical english. (remember me, Japan?) Don’t get me wrong, there are other brain-mushing forces at work here (i.e. cubicle, voicemail, email, corporate monotony). Unfortunately, this blog, fb, and gmail are all blocked at work. How do they expect me to get anything done? At least they left me youtube and amazon.

What has driven me to get back on the blog train? Well, I attended an info session for this program and I joined right away. I am running a Half Marathon for charity and I wanted to spread the word in every way possible. I am getting myself into 13-mile shape with Team in Training. This organization trains endurance athletes and benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). Really it benefits everyone involved because the athletes train in honor or in memory of cancer surivivors and patients while the athletes benefit through the training and peace of mind in helping a cause. Many runners are survivors themselves (wow!) It seems like I could just ask for a donation – but I have physically committed my own time and money to train and run a damn long race for a good cause and I hope you respect that. It’s a good cause, too. So let that respect push you over the edge and actually donate.

http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/rnr09/jgiordano Donors can leave a comment for everyone to see. (I know how much that excites to you)

Things I didn’t know:
Near 1 million Americans are affected by blood cancers
Every 4 minutes, a new person is diagnosed with a blood cancer
Every 10 minutes, someone passes away from a blood cancer.
Since its origination, Team in Training has raised over $900 million for LLS
Team in Training is the world’s largest and most successful endurance sports training program.
http://www.teamintraining.org/

What can the money do? -
$25 provides booklets to help patients make informed decisions about their treatments
$100 funds one more day of research towards a cure
$150 allows 5 patients or family members to meet with a trained peer volunteer
$250 provides materials to help young survivors with their re-entry into school
$1,000 supports a community outreach or a profession education program
$2,000 provides financial assistance for 4 NY families affected by blood cancers
$2,500 buys a sophisticated chemical scale for experiments to develop new anti-myeloma therapies
$5,000 purchases a microscope for researchers to see abnormal cells in bone marrow biopsies

How about a couple of dollars per mile? Just $25. I’m on my way to my fundraising goal, but I’m on a deadline here and if I don’t keep on track with my progress I will have to drop out of the race! Your donations and encouragement really motivate me to get out and run (and these days that = BRR). We’ll both feel good that we are helping a worthy cause. And it should be said that in the current environment, charities are really feeling the pinch in continuing their efforts and good works. Plus, it’s like another blog to read! You’re hooked! http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/rnr09/jgiordano

i am confused and possibly annoyed by the new alien features i am finding on xanga after a hiatus.

bad weather. good 4th. New Pornographers concert in the park and fireworks from a sweet roofdeck.

work tomorrow. boo. Fake weekend in the middle of the week: not bad!

We had a party. It was sweet! We ran out of beer and ppl stayed, while others went out and restocked us!! Good ppl. but boo to the other ones who showed up without bringing anything. Party foul, bro. Dancing went on (for me) til about 5am. In bed by 6 am. One person fell asleep on the bathroom floor. You know you wish you were there. Plus our tunes were loud enough this time and there were a few well-placed scandals. uh oh!! And Dianne made mini cupcakes!! I know, catch your breath.

The apartment was so clean before the party. Then not clean, then clean again. Thanks to a bunch of well-placed bags for recycles. Masterful. Another winning element seems to be some kind of punch involving canned lychees and their syrup. delish. And for me, it was the giant barrel of cheeseballs. YUMMY.

facebook is at once lame and awesome. ahhh

last week the girl who sits next to me had her last day. we went out to have a farewell and had a nice sit at a bar for a while, then we went to a karaoke bar on St Marks. It was kind of awesome. And I must admit the girls i work with and even the boyfriend of one of the girls i work with, did not let me down. KARAOKE IS AWESOME! if you dont agree, then you re not following the guidelines.

Pick a song you can sing. you might have to carry it. you re the one with the mic – ass.
Pick a song ppl know and will sing a long with. This is not the time to show how cool and underground you are.
Dont pick a slow ballad unless you are somewhat awesome. they are way harder than you think and if its bad, then it just goes on for longer.
When in doubt, go with Madonna, Billy Joel or Bon Jovi. Or on the more ambitious side- I like big butts is always a laugh.

The next night I ended up going to a different karaoke bar. not even my suggestion, just by coincidence. Then off to some other bar which was really crowded and didnt have standards. If bars had the standards i wish they had, i certainly wouldnt get in. it was so crowded and people wearing North Face were getting shoved in my face. And let me tell you when you below the height of the average male, a place being crowded makes a big difference for your oxygen intake. just a sea of breast pockets, collars and well- a few actual breasts. i managed to pass on the Jager Bomb that was passed my way, but i took the tequila shot. yum/ick

The next night i knew of 4 parties and went to none. that makes me cool right? tonight there was one. i got dressed and ended up losing momentum. dianne and i watched Survivor Fiji online. we re cool right? RIGHT? ugh. the only real choice I think I have is e-Harmony or Match.com… dentist or undecided science profession? then I’ll be all set.

today Jason and I went to a free seminar about buying a home. it was about a certain town in NJ for commuters to NYC, but they had a lot of info on the general process. and bagels and coffee. we were 2 of 5 participants there. te he. now i know things like Title Insurance exist. neat. Good to know. Someday. someday.

Ave. Q was good. there was full puppet nudity! they warned me, but still- a little shocking. great music, funny, and still with a heart. also very hip.

chinese new year? tonight im going to dinner in chinatown. that’s celebration enough.

Last night I was walking towards the kitchen when I passed some noises coming from the bathroom. Strange since no one was in there. The light was off and the door was open. I turn on the light and see a racoon halfway inside the top part of the window that leads to the lightshaft. (!) I say in a loud, but calm voice: there is a racoon climbing in the bathroom window. … No one seems to think im being serious until i put my mug and chips down on the floor and grab a broom. I wave the broom in the general direction of the racoon, not hitting it – but still, not wanting to help it in the window. Then it falls down about one and a half floors and gets out of the lightshaft somehow. After all the screaming and running around, a guy from downstairs comes up to check on us. he gets a flashlight and checks from the lower floor and the little guy seems to be gone. I am just trying to imagine if the raccoon did get in and just strolled into the living room. Or went into the kitchen garbage. Then we would run in to yell at whichever cat was expected to be the culprit only to find- a RACCOON?! We probably would be forced to close some of the doors and trap it and then call animal control. Unbelievable!

Sometime last week, Scott had Sharn, Jen and I over for Boggle and found they were quite worthy opponents. we re smart SMRT.

FRIDAY night: Jen and bendy and I went to a raw bar and had clams and oysters, then a lobster roll and ended with a dessert of one bucket of steamers. plus one bottle of wine. then we went to whichever bar we passed across the street by West 4th and drank some more, talked to some guys. One guy assaulted us with what ressembled a stand up act. another half japanese, half jordanian guy’s friend tried to chat us up as we walked by with the amazing line “HEY my friend just landed from Japan!!” after we walked in and saw the place, we did end up talking to them for quite a while. there is one mystery tho. how did my phone and a few other things in my purse get wet, salty and muddy? my phone was broken and had to be replaced. good thing we opted for insurance! at first it was just stuck on Car Kit and the charger connector point was corroded with salt, then i got a new battery, then I could hear, but no one could hear me. Then the store ppl worked on it forever in the back room. then it turned out that they had just forgotten i was still waiting! anyway, i got a new phone for free. Jen can shed no light on this situation either. Did someone put a snowball in my purse when I wasn’t looking on Friday? hmm.

Jen got the audio cord that we needed for Dianne’s iKaraoke. It is pretty cool. Dianne uses it. often. haha.

I gotta hand it to Justin. He brought sexy back. really. I used to think that the old films of girls fainting for young Sinatra and the Beatles was weird and ridiculous. Then I went to Justin’s show at Madison Square Garden. He oozes sexiness so much that even with the small but calculated movements of the new dance style, the sexy was still flung all the way out to the cheap seats. Now I can see how just a flick of the wrist can make you weak in the knees. plus the stage was central and huge. and there were amazing screens that were semitranparent depending on the lighting so sometimes they served as displays, but you could still see Justin behind it. Really great. Even some lasers and stuff. Future-y.

Avenue Q tomorrow. whee.

I was going to go home today but then i didnt. oops. might go to a museum though. and Victor is visiting. Fun. he had an address written on an index card in his pocket that dianne and i promptly snatched away because it was neon green and yellow. That is, one side green, one side yellow. really cool and coincidentally the address if for a paper store. sweet!

last night, we went to a korean fried chicken joint that got a good review in the Times. it was pretty crowded. we waited a long time to sit and then we waited forever to get the chicken after we ordered but GOD DAMN was that chicken good. must go back. Then we went to a dessert place and had some cute tasting plates and dessert cocktails. the kind that come in a spoon. like the serving is a small spoon on a plate. but to be honest it was good and well presented. and then you really savor everything. probably no worse, in fact actually better, than just eating a cheap ice cream sundae or something. yummm. lychee cocktails with rose water. tarragon in your mango drink. weird and cool. plus the workers were really nice. we are soooo hip. plus in bed by 1. we are sooo old.

party tonite. and walkable from our apartment. SWEET.

So I did, BTW, donate my hair. 12 inches this time. and it’s not even too terribly short now. meh.

My awesome pedometer has drawn many a curious eye. Impressed eyes, that is.

Jeyku just commented on my delinquent blog. swell. I feel honored.

Utah and Mashi had a pretty epic fight last nite. Fur literally flew. All Mashi’s of course. It’s weird how Utah’s bitchiness can outshine Mashi’s streetsmarts. Altho, maybe Mashi was just a weiner who ran away everytime she saw another cat. Not down an alley, more like down the ridge of a rice paddy. And now that she can’t run away, she gets her furry ass handed to her.

This is a busy upcoming couple of weeks. Dianne and I are going to see JUSTIN@MSG on the 7th and then Jensy, Dianne, Scott and I are going to see the Broadway show Avenue Q. it won best show a couple of years ago. something about puppets. I dont know. I just know I got a sweet corporate discount.

Work is pretty busy. I am taking shorter lunches and staying late sometimes. I dont mind so far. in truth, its kind of a pleasing job for me to get to put a million things away as finished little by little. schedule this, enter this, post that, send invoice, etc. i have a check list in a notebook and i highlite to mark things off. you better believe i highlited the hell out of that thing. and in terms of having to know things, I feel like the cashier at CVS. you always have the manager to defer to. I always have a recruiter to handle the bigger things for me. and the things i dont know yet or will never know. I speak from experience on the CVS thing too. I turned down a promotion a few times because who wants to be the last stop on the customer service train? with old ladies looking for rainchecks and whatnot, you do not want to be that manager.

did anyone know the super bowl was happening? not me. i had also never seen one of these grid score box gamble buying things until about today. weird. im too much of a killjoy. i did not buy a box.

now look how late it is. i suck.

Of course Rice to Riches is overnite, that ricey goodness doesn’t last forever! (usually because you eat it first)

Here you go, a pedometer. This is mine, the cadillac of pedometers. But I started out on a cheapie from Target for like 7 bux. I’m considering a heart rate monitor next…. I’m going to try one at the gym. NEATO

Last week, I went to see the acapella group Rockapella and THEY WERE AWESOME. let’s just get that straight. Plus I was quite satisfied with myself when I could tell that their suits were tailor made in Asia. The main guy looked especially awesome with a long asian shag and super slim asian cut suit. black suit, black vest, black shirt, black tie. Not too shabby. The best part of waking up is hearing Where in the World is Carmen San Diego.

We tried a couple of trivia nights at bars. One had a free bar pie come with each drink!! amazing!!

I find myself to be a disappointing student of New York geography. I need to pay more attention to where the places I go to actually are. meh.

Yesterday we had a champagne toast at work at 330pm to celebrate some promotions in the department. That was a good way to end the week. We should do that every friday. Then I went to a party! woot.

Speaking of party, we re having another one. NEAT.

i foresee awesome delinquincy in my future. in blogging i mean.

went to Lombardi’s and Rice to Riches again. This time we got a pitcher or the Sweet Action Cream Ale. It was lauded as “the perfect compliment to Lombardi’s delicious pizza” and it wasnt too far off. Brooklyn brewed too. represent. our rice pudding choice was chocolate chip. excellent.

we ventured way out to Queens last week. we went around Chinatown there and had some good dim sum. the outing was marred by us being duped into getting a special expensive dish. doh. then we went to the Queens Museum of Art. They have a cool panorama of NY in miniature model form. i love miniatures. it was closed, but we sneaked a peek. (yea – “sneaked”) one show was of artists who are Queens residents. some of them were my age. makes me feel unaccomplished huh?

my job is going pretty well. i am in a constant state of fear that i am missing something or late with something or forgot to write something down and will forget it later. but my bosses say im doing well. good. certain things frustrate me already, but since hearing that i dont really have to worry about that piece of info from my boss and another person with my same job, it has relaxed me.

i wake up around 630 every morning and work out with some TV personalities like Denise Austin or Gilad. i’ve upgraded with my second pedometer. i drink V8 in the morning. some ppl are scared of me.

next week i will cut off my hair and donate it. jensy and i are going to a mid price stylist recommended by judy. we re going together to make sure we get different styles. we live together after all.

I just finished LISTENING to harry potter on audiobook. it was quite nice. the voice actor is great. this way i can be “reading” while i walk to the train and then while ON the train i dont even have to hold a book up. tho, admittedly, i do tend to doze off sometimes.

my room is still a mess. the loft bed is good but im sitting on the floor right now. i suppose i should just get into the mindset that my room is for sleeping, changing and putting on make up. i should use the living room for sitting around. still- more horizontal space!! i might get a dresser or something.

Mashi sleeps with me everynite and the other cat, Utah, doesnt jump up to my bed anymore. she knows she s not welcome. not if they re gonna fight anyway. they tolerate each other mostly. Utah is a bitch, but Mashi holds her own. usually no more than dirty looks. Mashi is getting plump tho so im changing her to diet food. i never noticed any amazing jumping skills, but she cant even jump to the loft bed without going to a table first. fatty.

short term goals include more shoes, more clothes, and at least thinking about a trip someday. plus im joining the gym at work. its a real steal.

yesterday was ONE SWEET THURSDAY.  i feel like ive gotten the weekend out of the way already.  now i can do laundry on the weekend and pretend i was in the hamptons and thats why you didnt see me.

jensy and i went to Lombardi’s for the best pizza in the world.  i expected it to be good, but for real i think it really was the best i ve ever had.  we easily polished off a small pie of 6 slices in no time.  with room left, we went to Rice to Riches across the street.  a rice pudding shop.  thats all they have.  its sweet!  we not so easily polished off their generous helpings of rice pudding.  i had banana coconut and jen had eggnog.  so good!  THEEENNNN (yes there’s more) we went to a bar to meet some other ppl for a monthly event called Basement Bhangra.  we had a bhangra dance lesson and a cocktail.  it was fun and a workout and i got to bed by midnite.  phew.