It's Only a Green Light

Do you ever get into one of those moods, the kind that makes you start thinking waaaay more than you should? And everything you think about is kind of “deep”. Well that’s the mood I was in earlier today while driving to work. It sounds funny to tell this story now, because I’m not really in that mood anymore, but at the time it was almost like an eye opener.
I was driving along in my car, doing the same mindless things I always do while going to work. (Yelling at drivers, making sure nothings in my teeth, and generally driving way to fast) when I got stuck behind an extremely slow moving car. Sometimes when this happens you honk or speed around them, maybe you flash them a slightly inappropriate signal before passing, but sometimes (like me today) you’re so deep in thought that you don’t really realize you’re going five under the speed limit (which was 40) until you’ve been doing it for awhile. I wasn’t really running late, per se, but I wasn’t really on time either, and I definitely didn’t have time to horse around with “speed impaired” vehicles. However, I was also very tired and so making the attempt to speed around the car just didn’t appeal to me at the time. But after a couple miles, I decided I wasn’t getting anywhere so I went around him. As I went around him we were approaching a street light, and I just happened to get through the light as it turned yellow and he was far enough behind me that he had to stop. For some weird reason (blame it on the deep mood) I started thinking about how that decision could have affected my day, or not even that, but how it could have possibly affected my life. And that seems like a really ridiculous thought, right? How could something so minor change events in my life? Well I got to thinking about how the decision to move around the car just then caused me to get to pass through the green light. Well, let’s look at the obvious first. Maybe I could have gotten into a car accident if I hadn’t of made that light, or maybe I could have because I DID make the light, either way, something could have happened that wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t moved around the car just then. Or maybe because I got to work a minute earlier than I would have, I didn’t see or talk to someone that might have said something bad or negative (just throwing out possibilities) that would have caused me to have a bad day. Maybe that bad day would have carried into the rest of my day and caused me to make a poor decision later, maybe I would have yelled at someone or done something else that caused another reaction that ultimately changed what would have happened the next day, which would have changed the next week, then month, and so on. Is it really so unrealistic to consider the idea that every choice we make really CAN effect our lives like that? It seems to be an extreme idea at first, but how many times has a bad driver or a bad customer at work caused you to have a bad day? And how many times has that caused you to be in a bad mood and possibly pass that on to someone else? And how often have you had a fight you wouldn’t have had or an encounter that wouldn’t have happened, had you not been feeling the way you did the previous day? It’s not really that unreasonable. Of course it could work in reverse too. The day could be better instead of worse. Think about this scenario, say I was on my way to buy a lottery ticket (which I do not buy, I accepted long ago that I wasn’t lucky) and passing that car got me there one minute ahead of someone else that was going to buy a lottery ticket at the same time. Say that I win. (Yeah, this is definitely turning into a fantasy) What if I hadn’t of gone around the car? What if I’d shown up a minute later? The next guy buying the ticket just then would have gotten the winning one. Interesting eh? Well I think so anyways. We always think of major events changing our lives, like 9/11 or the war or gas prices or an assassination (heh heh heh, that was a completely random thought process by the way) and they do affect us, but how much time do we spend thinking about the little things that could change our lives forever? Yeah, I guess that's a bit dramatic, after all, it was only a green light. But don’t you ever just wonder, what if?

Ps. The NYC series will continue, as soon as I have time to compile more stories. Along with those will be the punching story. Where I get attacked. It’s true. It happened. Its science. Don’t question it.

I Love You! .......P.S. You suck.

I’m sure everyone’s heard the phrase, “Love means never having to say your sorry” and I’m sure everyone’s also heard the debate or the counterpoint of “Love means having to say your sorry more”. I don’t really know if there is a right or wrong answer to this. I truly believe that everyone should apologize if they do something wrong. Whether it’s to that creepy next door neighbor or a loved one. But does being in a relationship mean that you get a blurred line between the necessity of an apology and the choice of one? I don’t believe in apologizing if you don’t think you’re wrong. What’s the point? The apology doesn’t mean anything if you don’t mean it, so why waste your time and delude the person you’re apologizing too? But if you love someone, doesn’t that warrant more apologies? Or are you deserved of a benefit of the doubt because that person loves you? Is it fair to think that way? Doesn’t that in fact simply mean that because that person cares for you they should have to put up with your crap? Who honestly would accept that deal? And the way I see it, if both parties are putting up with each others crap, and no ones apologizing because they think the other one loves them……isn’t that a really frustrating relationship? Isn’t that basically the one thing that every person who’s dating dreads? Isn’t it, in fact, simply taking the other person for granted? Just a thought….

Rudeness. The New Foreign Policy.

I’ve discovered a mistake in the stereotype of NYC. And although I was only there for a few days, I think I witnessed enough to say this next statement with a fair bit of accuracy, so here goes: It’s not NYC that is rude. It’s all the stinking foreign tourists that are rude. Yeah, I said it. Sue me.
The entire time “J” and I were in NYC we encountered several very nice New Yorkers and absolutely NO rude ones. However, also during this time we encountered enough rude tourists to justify closing our borders for good. I mean it people, it was sad. And yes, I’m sure a fair amount were American, we all know that Americans aren’t really the best at politeness from time to time, but the people that were obviously foreign and extremely rude, completely outweigh the number of Americans we encountered that could be “considered” rude. Let me say this next statement because in a country that lives and breathes political correctness to a fault, in a country that refuses to say anything no matter how true for fear of upsetting someone, and in a country that prefers to assume a point of view before actually reading or listening, I have to say this, you know, to make it clear. So here goes again: I’m not a racist. The fact that I encountered a lot of really rude people and the fact that they all happened to not speak English as a first language, doesn’t have anything to do with me “disliking” them. It’s just simply what happened. And I don’t like to change the truth just because it sounds better. You can say the sky is yellow and I’ll say it’s blue. I might offend you by saying that, it might upset you to hear that, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s the truth. So there you have it. Let’s move on.

While in NYC it was funny to realize that so many of the people we encountered, whether it was on Times Square or just the Subway, were tourists. This was made funnier by the fact that it wasn’t even tourist season. Which shows you that just like the city that never sleeps, the tourism never sleeps either. Even more interesting than the aforementioned point was the fact that so many of them were not Americans. I guess in some ways this wasn’t surprising at all, but in many ways I still found myself a bit surprised. I heard more foreign languages spoken around me on Times Square then I ever heard English. Nothing wrong with that, it was just (as I mentioned) a surprise. I didn’t have a problem until everywhere I went I had to encounter someone being really rude. And then it dawned on me that each and every one of them were not from this country. Let’s list off a few of them: First of all there was the Russian couple that continually thought it was funny to cut in line at the Empire State Building. And if you’ve never been there, let me tell you, there are a lot of lines. You DO NOT cut at the Empire State building, this will get you killed. Apparently she thought the fact that she carried a Tod handbag made her God, I don’t know. Second, the Mexican lady at Liberty Island that thought she could jump in line to check out her forty-seven bracelets that she bought and then proceeded to want each bagged separately. I’m sorry, this is not Mexico, and we don’t need your money that badly, please wait in line. I promise you that the Statue of Liberty isn’t going anywhere; even the Terrorists didn’t want to hit it, so lets not panic. Third, the Asian gentleman (I use that word loosely) that cut in line at the Empire State Building while I was checking out. Excuse me? Notice a theme here? I’m beginning to think that only America has LINES. *sheesh* and believe me, these were not subtle cuts. These were blatant “I’m going to get in there no matter what” cuts. There were also the French people at Hard Rock Café that needed to ram me into displays at every given second…..wait a second…..why are the French even IN NYC?? Don’t they hate us or something? I digress. Point being, it got ridiculous.
Seriously, Americans may not be the nicest people in the world, trust me, I understand that. I am in no way gung-ho American. No wait, yes I am. I am. Because to deny what we have, to deny what we get, and the fact that on average I DO think we are nicer needs to be mentioned. There is nothing wrong with being proud of what you are and where you live. Because we didn’t get it handed to us on a silver platter. We fought for it, we died for it and we’ve earned it. If this means that other countries hate us? So be it. That won’t ever change. I certainly hope that if there comes a day again when we can travel out of the country and not be scared of being kidnapped, that we, as Americans, wont’ be as asinine as to cut in line or run into people or steal seats or any other number of things. Hopefully you WILL be courteous and polite. Hopefully you’ll realize that it just annoys people and embarrasses your country. And if your not, I hope someone in Germany, or France or Spain writes a really nasty blog about you so you know how ridiculous your being. Because we have a responsibility to hold people accountable for their actions. Whether you’re from here or there. Black or white. Smart or dumb. Male or Female.
And if that “offends” them, then tell them to grow up.

Gray's Papaya, Its Not Just a Movie.

So “J” and I are walking down a NYC street towards Times Square, when I notice out of the corner of my eye a bright, glowing sign. It was calling to me, it was saying…..well nothing because it was a sign. But anyways, when I looked up there it was! A Gray’s Papaya hot dog place! Now for anyone that’s seen the movie “Fools Rush In” you know how important a Gray’s Papaya hot dog is. For those of you that don’t know, let me explain. In the movie “Fools Rush In”, Matthew Perry (yes, that’s the one dude from Friends) is an architect who suddenly has to go to Las Vegas to build a club of some sort. However, Matthew Perry’s character is a tried and true “New Yorker”, Manhattan to be exact, and so he doesn’t really jive well with the atmosphere in Vegas. And several times during the movie talks about “Gray’s Papaya” hot dogs and how great they are and how wonderful they are in NYC and how much he misses them.

*sidebar*

Your right in questioning how this movie could be good. Your wondering why a hotdog has such a central role in a movie. Your also wondering why I should care. Correct? Obviously the hotdog has nothing to do with the central theme of the movie nor does it have any effect on the plot whatsoever.

*back to blog*

There is this really cute part where Salma Hayek overnights a few Gray’s Papaya hot dogs so he can have one…….ok so I’ve seen the movie a few to many times. But it was fun to see that they truly exsist! I realize that this was not enlightening in any way, nor was it informative. But I enjoyed eating the same hot dog’s as Matthew Perry. Call me weird. I don’t care, it wouldn’t be the first time. But one day you’ll look back and say, “Man. I wish I could say that I ate the same hot dogs as Matthew Perry.” And I’ll say, “Naaa naa naaaa na naaaaaaaaaaaan naaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!! Hoser.” But maybe that’s not fair…..not everyone can be as cool as me…..hmmmm….. *Tamaira walks away pondering this new thought*

And in case your wondering: Yes, They were delicious! (and cheap)

ps. check out my Flickr link to see more photos from my NYC trip! And stay tuned for many more stories from NYC. Including one where I get punched....no i'm not joking. I really do get punched..

My First AudioBlog! How Thrilling!

This is basically my first try at audioblogging before I leave for NYC in a couple days. So far seems to work pretty good!