Does your job speak to you intelligence level?

I think it’s fair to say a majority of people would say that (fair or unfair) they tend to judge people’s intelligence around their occupation. Even if it’s not a conscious decision, most people pre-determine a person’s likely intelligence level based on what they do for a living. All you have to do is go to a bar in NYC for Happy Hour if you don’t believe me. When I was living in Manhattan we had a weekly Happy Hour that rotated around the city. This is a breading ground for men and women looking to meet new people… possibly that special someone… possibly that special someone for a night! More often than not the men are touting jobs much better and higher up the ladder than they actually have in reality. There can only be two reasons for that. They want to show the women their supreme intelligence and imply their robust money making power.

If you are still doubting my original thought just take the test. If you saw someone wearing a suit coming out of a building in Boston’s financial district at 6pm and you saw another person coming out of McDonald’s with their McD’s uniform on… be honest, you look at them both and automatically assume the person in the suit coming out of an office building is much smarter. I would like to challenge this thought. I would like to say that can be the correct assumption more than not, but there are plenty of instances where it is not the truth! Sometimes circumstance we are not aware of can lead to a smart person with a lesser job than we would have guessed. The flip side is also true where someone with a great job may have gotten to that position because of a family member or some other social connection that has no direct relation to their intelligence.

It was back in the year 2001 and it was my first trip to a wonderful place called Las Vegas. I went with a group of 7 other guys I was friends with at the time. We were staying at the Flamingo, which was located in the center of The Strip. I can remember the first time we rode down The Strip. The excitement was along the lines of waking up Christmas morning when you were 8 years old. I had never seen anything so wild before. I couldn’t wait to check into the hotel, throw my stuff in the room, and get outside to check everything out. We did some gambling in a few casinos. We went out to the pool to check out the scene and talent. We scouted out some food spots we wanted to hit later in the trip. Heck, I think we even walked into the Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum at The Venetian. Soon the day turned to night and The Strip exploded into sea of lights. The young ladies were out looking their very best. The skirts and dresses were shorter than K-Fed’s rap career. There were endless lines of creepy dudes making snapping noises with business cards to escort services on every corner. More over, the energy on The Strip was incredible. The mood was perfect to party and we were more than willing to join that mood. I had heard a number of stories about Vegas before being there, but hardly believed them. I heard it was a place where everyone had fun. People were friendly, looking to party and some were hoping to get rich and win their fortunes at the slots, blackjack, craps, or your table game of choice.

The guys and I had done some “pre-gaming” in the room thanks to a bottle of Captain Morgan and everyone’s favorite friend to love then hate, Jagermeister. The night started off at the Bellagio. We went to our favorite spot, Light. It is now called Bank, but it is one of the most fun bar/clubs I’ve ever been to. Light was like the Mecca of Vegas clubs for us. We had drinks and did some dancing. We talked to some groups of girls and had an all around fantastic time. After being there from 10pm-12:30am we decided to leave. I know what you are thinking… rookies. You’re 100% right, we left just when it was going to really get good. Hey, we were 22 years old and had never been to Vegas before. Anyways, we were walking up The Strip to go to another bar. As we were walking there were 2 girls I noticed across the way. They were smokin’ hot. A friend of mine needed to hit an ATM, so we needed to cross the street. I was more than willing to get a closer look at these two beauties. As we were waiting, a friend and I started chatting with the girls. They were very friendly and started to walk with our group when we started to head towards our next destination. I don’t know what I was saying, but they were loving every word out of my mouth like a fat kid loves cake. It was great. We got to the bar and I asked them where they where headed (hoping to meet up with them later on). They told me they were headed wherever I was going. Wow, this was incredible. Did I find the exact right amount of alcohol to consume to get me in the perfect zone with the ladies? I felt like Michael Jordan. Everything I threw up at the hoop was nothing but net! We went over to the bar area and this one girl with a cherry tattoo on her back left shoulder bought me a drink. Could things get better? Now they are buying me drinks. People were right about Vegas… this place rules!! We were chatting and I realized my friends were no longer in sight, but honestly I didn’t care. I was like a pitcher on the mound in the 9th inning with a no-hitter. I was straight up dealing. Everything was a strike. I couldn’t miss! I was on the kind of roll you dream of. Then the girl with the cherry asked me if I wanted to go up to her room. I thought, “you have to be kidding me?” I didn’t know what to say. My friends are never going to believe this. It felt like I was Brad Pitt going to a speed dating event with women dying for a decent man. I paused because I didn’t know what to say. I was not the “player” type so this was sort of out of my wheel house. I had to think about this for a second. The theme to Jeopardy was playing in my head for those few seconds of silence. Before I could figure out what to say she spoke again, “only $500 for 2 hours”. Suddenly I got that feeling like at the end of Fight Club when Ed Norton comes to the realization that Brad Pitt was merely a figment of his imagination and he was actually the one screwing Marla, the founder of Fight Club, and the leader behind Project Mahem. All I could hear in my head was the voice of the flight attendant on the trip out to Vegas saying, “please put your tray table and seat in the upright in the locked position… we are about to experience some major turbulence”. It was like my entire world was rocked at its foundation. I definitely gave her the deer in headlights look. I had never seen a hooker before, nevermind been propositioned by one in person. To me hookers were like Big Foot or the Lochness monster... not real, just creatures made up by people with vivid imaginations. I quickly told her no thanks and asked if she was a hooker… even though I already knew. She said, “of course cutie.” I expressed my disappointment and confirmed to her that I was not interested. She told me to hold on a second and asked me, “Do you gamble?” I said yes. She then said, “Well think of it this way… you are probably going to sit down at the black jack table with a few hundred dollars. You are probably going to lose that money and its likely going to happen in half an hour. What will you be left with then? Nothing! Or you could take that money, bring it upstairs, and I’ll show you the night of your life and give you an experience you’ll never forget… certainly better than losing in the casino for 30 minutes!” She had an excellent point. That was a well thought out argument. One might say a well crafted sales pitch. She could tell I was a smart, logical kind of person and used a persuasive argument that catered to my type of thought and reasoning. This girl was a smart cookie. I still told her that I don’t pay for sex and I’m not interested. Then instead of walking off, she actually started to negotiate. The price went from $500 to $300 and she was willing to throw in her friend. Now the offer was these two hot girls for $300 for the entire night. She knew her stuff. She knew the ABCs of sales… Always Be Closing! Naturally I told her no again and explained that just wasn’t something I’d ever be interested in. Ok, maybe I thought about it for 5 seconds, but eventually I decided that wasn’t something I would feel comfortable doing. She was smart enough to realize I wasn’t bull-shitting her and she let me go. I asked the bartender for my tab as I wanted to close it out and find my friends. As I was signing my tab, I noticed they she moved on to another guy 8 feet to me left at the bar. This guy was nothing like me. He was bigger, out of shape, not dressed well and likely in his 30s. I listened in to their conversation as I signed my tab. She took a whole different approach with him. It was amazing to listen to their conversation. She had him hooked. He was in and ready to go to her hotel room. He asked for his tab. He wanted to get out of there. It was “GO” time for him. As I was about to get up, walk away and find my friends I felt someone walk by in a hurry and brush my shoulder. This person meant business. It was a woman in her early 30s. I looked over at this guy and the hooker and I see this women standing behind him out of his sight line. She yells out, “Henry, what the heck are you doing? Who is this girl? You were supposed to meet me up in the room 45 minutes ago!!” Now if I thought I was experiencing turbulence, this guy must have had a vision of a mushroom cloud in his head. Needless to say, this was his fiancée. He was in Vegas to marry her. And yet he was 2 minutes from going up and having sex with a random hooker. What a complete and total idiot!! How ridiculous can someone be?? I have thoughts on that, but we’ll save that for another time.

So, the morale of the story is that intelligence level is not something we can just assume from someone’s appearance, occupation, age, or gender. This little hooker in Vegas not only gave me an unbelievably funny story to share with my friends, but she also showed me that you truly can’t judge a book by its cover. Now you could argue she can’t be that intelligent because a smart person would never chose to be a hooker. The truth is we don’t know her story, her situation, or how she has arrived at that point in her life. All I know is she wasn’t a stupid person. She was very clever, very well spoken, and very strategic the way she went about her “business”. And in case you were wondering my friends talked to the friend of the girl with the cherry when I was engaged in conversation with Ms. Cherry and found out they were hookers. Of course, they decided not to tell me and laugh at me from afar as the situation played itself out. Thanks guys!

The New Lemon Law

I have been on plenty of dates with a number of women. All different kinds of girls… smart, not so smart, funny, boring, happy, moody, interesting, attractive, athletic, selfish, cute, and so on…

There have been lots of good times, but also some equally bad times. I can recall some dates that I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone. I’m not kidding, I could hear the theme song in my head as I looked at some of these girls in the eyes. There are bad dates, which we’ve all been on. I’m not talking about those. I am speaking of dates that you literally couldn’t script to be worse.

When I was 23 I met a girl in a bar, actually a club. I went to Avalon with a group of friends. That was clearly mistake numero uno! This was back in the days when I had literally as much game as Brian Scalabrine. My move you ask? ... crickets chirping... I think the only success I had back then was that a girl thought I was cute, came up to me, we got drinks, hit the dance floor… Well, this happened one night out with some co-workers for a little weekend madness. I was probably a little too drunk, but still managing to stay on my feet, communicate in mostly English, etc… Well, I danced with this girl for like an hour. If you’ve ever been in Avalon it is so loud that you had better know sign language if you want to communicate with anyone. I think one time I was at Avalon and I asked a girl “what’s your name?” and her response was “Bentley College”. I smiled and repeated my question, “no, what’s your name?” and she replied with “You Got It Bad, Usher”. I nodded and walked off. Impossible! Anyways, I was at Avalon with some Filene’s crew and we were about 8 drinks deep. A nice young lady walked up to me, told me I was cute, and dragged me onto the dancefloor. Despite being more wasted than an Irishman on St. Patrick’s Day I managed to keep it together. The next thing I know this girl has her tongue jammed deeper down my throat than Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic. About 20 minutes later my friends wanted to leave, so I proceeded to ask this girl for her number. She happily obliged and I went home.

I waited about 3 or 4 days after that Saturday to give her a call. You always wonder if it’s a real number and in this case it was. She picked up the phone and immediately recognized my voice. How, I will never know. It was so loud in there I couldn’t have identified anyone’s voice. Anyways, we chatted for 15 minutes or so about nothing important and then I asked her if she wanted to hang out, get drinks sometime. She said yes. I asked her if Saturday was good. She was cool with that. I was about to suggest a place to go and she jumped in and suggested a day at the beach Saturday because it was supposed to be 85 degrees and sunny. Only a stupid 23 year old would think that is a good suggestion. I would get to see her in a bikini right off the bat. Did I think this was going to be an episode of Baywatch? Seriously! I agreed to the “beach date” and told her I would pick her up at noon. Mistake number two!! I got directions to her place downtown and that was that. I was living in wonderful Brighton at the time… land of getting your car vandalized weekly, 40 person street fights at 2am on a Tuesday, and The Kells. Enough said. At this point I wasn’t super familiar with downtown Boston and getting around, but figured I could manage.

Saturday arrived and I got in a quick gym session. Hey, first impressions are important so I wanted to look my best on the beach. I got my crap together, threw it in the car, and I was off. I arrived on time at 11:55am at her apartment building. I waited a few minutes a door opened and out walked a girl. It didn’t look like the girl I met the previous weekend, but she was walking right towards me. Kind of confusing, no? As she is about 5 feet away she smiles, waves, and says hi to me. Is this really the same girl?? Her face looks nothing like I remembered. Maybe I should’ve told my friends out with me that weekend that I got her number and was planning a date. Mistake number three! I never considered how drunk I must have been. Minor setback, but not a big deal. No reason to still not be excited about this date. I drive off and we are on our way. Inside of ten minutes she has asked me insanely dumb question after another and I am getting annoyed. I am starting to get nervous. I don’t mean a little nervous. I am talking about that feeling those sick losers must get when Chris Hansen walks into the kitchen with his camera crew on “To Catch A Predator”. I had a nice sweat worked up thinking about spending the next 4-5 hours with this crazy girl. This wasn’t drinks where I could duck out in an hour. This was the beach!! I then take a wrong turn getting out of the city and end up heading back into the city by mistake. An easy fix, but do I want to?? She then asks me what my deal is for the summer? I am confused and ask what she means. She then asks, “what I’m in it for?”. Again, I am confused and ask what she is talking about specifically. She replies with “Are you in this for a good lay or what?” I immediately get a vision of one of those old Vegas hotels being blown up from the inside-out reducing it to nothing but rubble. This chick is clearly off the reservation! I am starting to panic. She then points out her place of post-high school education. I say, “Oh the Berkley School of Music”. She literally goes off on me like one of those nut-jobs from Brett Michaels Rock of Love when they are fighting over who has better implants. She is yelling at me, “it’s the Berkley COLLEGE of Music”. That is enough for me to know I need to think quick. I need to summon my inner Jack Bauer and pull of an escape worthy of Houdini or Copperfield (without the creepiness). I see a McDonald’s in the distance. I tell her I need to use the restroom. She goes into a rant about fast food and I continue to smile and ignore her. When inside the McD’s I call my buddy Tom and tell him to call me back in exactly 3 minutes and tell me he is locked out of the apartment. I go back to the car, get back on the road (still in Boston) and in a couple minutes the phone rings. I make sure to put it on speaker phone. You know the rest of that trick and I tell her, “we’re already lost, my roomie is locked out, and I even see clouds rolling in… maybe we take a rain check and do this another time.” She agrees and I drive her back to her apartment. She gets out, tells me to call her later today, and I drive off. Needless to say that was the last we spoke to each other. What a miserable date! As bad of a day as that was there were lessons learned, so not all was lost... plus I got to do some much needed laundry that afternoon since I suddenly didn't have anything pressing to do!!

The follow-up to the story is an idea I heard that suggests the need to implement a dating “Lemon Law”. Lemon laws are American state laws that provide a remedy for purchasers of cars that repeatedly fail to meet standards of quality and performance. In dating the Lemon Law should be that if inside of 15 minutes on a date you realize you have made a horrible mistake and have lined yourself up with a lemon, then you are permitted to get up, stop the date, nicely say good-bye, and walk away without any hard feelings on other side. I don’t think you can tell if you’re with the right person (or the one) in those first 15 minutes, but you most certainly can tell if you are not!! Thanks Barney, this is certainly a different idea that deserves some thought : )

Ways that good old Dad helped build me into a better athlete as a child

The following is a list of some of my fondest memories growing up as a little athlete.

Goal – Not being afraid of the ball when in the batters box in Little League
Action – He put me up against the back of the house and pitched to me… throwing 1 out of every 3 at me, so I’d learn to get out of the way and show me that it doesn’t hurt that bad to get hit! I was literally a human dart board, but instead of darts there were baseballs being thrown at me from close range!

Goal – To make me not afraid of physical confrontations
Action – He decided to play fight with me at my aunt’s house throwing a series of fake punches and kicks at close range… until one knee got through, hit me in the junk and dropped me like a sack of bricks. Apparently he was ahead of his time. Ultimate fighting didn't become popular for another 10-15 years. Although, even in the UFC groin strikes are illegal!

Goal – To make me a better shooter in basketball
Action – He put me in the driveway in 100+ degree heat until I could make 20 consecutive free throws. At one point it even got to the point that once I could do that easily, him and his buddy Chuckie would taunt and yell things at me as I shot the ball! And we wonder why I graduated from high school and weighed all of 120lbs!

Goal – To make me better at dribbling with my left hand
Action – In a game in the driveway he undercut my legs as I went up for a rebound, so I came down sideways and broke my right elbow on the asphalt. I had to do everything, including wiping my ass, with my left hand for 6 weeks. Ok, maybe my dad didn’t do that… it may have been some jerk in Linwood. I do think my dad was a little upset he didn't think of that first : )

And my little sister thought she had it tough growing up in my parent's house... LOL

In all seriousness, my dad is a really nice guy and has been very helpful to me growing up in this crazy world we live in... although his tactics are sometimes a little outside the box!

Looking back : Group trip to the Big Easy

I would say that I am well traveled within the United States of America. Beyond that, my travel desires are far from being fulfilled. There was a group of guys that I am friends with that used to do a yearly trip somewhere. We hit Vegas, Chicago, Seattle, NYC, and one time we went to New Orleans. Thats right we were down on Bourbon Street eating po boys and sucking down hurricanes. I think this was 2002, so we are talking pre-Katrina. I'd say this was at the height of our "we're still young... in denial that we are not in college" phase. It was awesome!

There are a lot of little tricks to really enjoy Mardi Gras that are not known upon arrival. Item #1 is that having beads doesn't get you jack! First off you have to have the right kind of beads. You need to have beads that are cool, different, unique. Secondly, you need to be a master negotiator. You'd be amazed at what people will do for a measley pair of $5 beads if you play your cards right. This little tool learned in New Orleans actually became very beneficial to my career. As an Assistant Buyer working towards becoming an actual Buyer I had been exposed to negotiating. I will liken this experience to a martial arts student that is very good finally achieving his (or her) black belt. By the time we left New Orleans I could comfortably say I had earned my black belt in negotiation!

The second thing to know is don't walk down any side streets or alleys. There are people looking to take advantage of you, rob you, or pick pocket you all over the place. Literally New Orleans is crawling with a ton of Chris Paul's. It is a haven for thieves looking to make the steal every opportunity they see. My advice is to keep all valuables in your front pockets, stay away from alleys, and do what women do at bars when the bathroom fairy comes calling... always travel in numbers. Traveling in packs will help eliminate some seriously sticky situations!

Lastly, take your fully charged cell phone with you in case you get seperated from your group. New Orleans is wild during Mardi Gras. I have never seen so many people packed into one street as when we were attempting to bar hop on Bourbon Street. It is amazing! Once you are seperated from your group, you are out of luck. Let's just say I have a better chance of dating Eva Longoria than you do of re-connecting with you party without the use of a cell phone. So, it was our last night in the Big Easy and we were determined to party to the max. Our group hopped around quite a bit until we found our spot. This bar was crazy. The music was hot... I think they played In Da Club by 50 Cent at least 6 times in a 2 hour span. I know this was THE song of that Spring, but this was a bit over the top. Thats like the Yankees laughing at their yearly $200 million payroll and going out and signing the 3 biggest free agents to contracts totaling more than 1/2 billion dollars... oh wait! Anyways, moving back to the bar... there was a dance off/strip contest on the main stage. To give you a visual the main stage was in the center of the bar. It was elevated about 2 feet higher than the ground level and was in the shape of a circle. It was surrounded by bar patrons on all sides. There was a female contest, which I surely enjoyed. Actually merely saying I enjoyed it was like saying that Amy Winehouse merely enjoys a drug now and again! Then there was a male contest. Our group thought someone from our click had to get up there and give it a go. A couple of guys from our group grabbed our friend Scott, picked him up and literally threw him up on stage against his will. The music started and the ladies crowded he edges of the stage urging the guys on. Let's just say that got Scott into it and before we knew it his shirt was off, he was dancing like Usher on crack, and the ladies were trying to rip his pants off like they were dying from a deadly poison and the antidote was in his boxers. I don't think he ever got that belt back! After a superb showing on stage Scott was feeling the momentum and moved to the main dance floor, walked up to the cutest girl in sight and started dancing. I don't know if it was a full moon or what, but she was totally into him and he took off with her and some of her friends. That is the last the group saw of Scott for the evening.

The next segment is where we thought the story ended, it was just starting. Apparently Scott went barhopping with this super cute blonde girl, her other girl friend and this guy. The drinks were flowing and apparently Scott was on fire. He was dancing with her, making out with her, and having an all around great time. We fast forward a couple hours to about 3am and Bourbon Street was starting to die down a bit. Apparently they walked down to the far end of the street into a bar Scott hadn't been during his week in New Orleans. The four of them did some shots and he started dancing with this girl... lets call her Britney. They moved to the dance floor and started "grinding". Scott eventually looked up and noticed they were the only people in the bar dancing... then he noticed the dance floor was lined with an audience watching them dance... then he noticed they were all guys... where were the girls??... then he noticed many of these men had their hands down the pants of other men as they watched Scott and Britney dance... the alarms went off is Scott's head like a 4 alarm fire!! How could he be so oblivious to his surroundings. Apparently this revlation led to the four set leaving the bar within minutes. One would guess reason would set in and Scott would go back to his hotel... oh no! That would be too easy. The three people Scott was with here locals and they all jumped into a car to ride back to Britney's apartment. The next thing Scott remembers is walking up the steps with the other 3 people to their apartment. The door to the apartment opened and it was like a time machine to the old Greek baths. There was more gay men getting busy in the living room than there are people in Times Square on New Years. It was like he had just walked into some sort of nude gay art show?!? Now keep in mind this was the group's last night in New Orleans. Check out at the hotel was 11am and everyone's flight back north was at 5pm. The next thing Scott remembers was waking up in Britney's bed and the clock on the wall read 11:05am... oops!! Scott then reached into his back pocket for his cell phone and remembered he left it in the hotel. What was he to do??? He woke Britney up and told her that he really needed to get back or he was in big trouble. He says she then got up and took to the bathroom for 20 minutes powdering her nose. While Scott was patiently waiting (probably freaking out on the inside) he noticed pictures of Britney and some young guy all over her desk, on the wall, and on her bookshelves. This girl clearly had a boyfriend. Then he noticed a blue Walmart apron on the floor. Scott just spent the night with a girl that works at Walmart, has a boyfriend that could show up at any time, and lives with a group of guys that throw gay orgies... awesome! That feeling can only be described as like winning the lottery... a lottery that has a grand prize of a giant kick in man's special place. Britney eventually drove Scott back to his hotel, arriving at roughly 12:15pm. He proceeded to ask the front desk if his friends checked out... they did. He asked if they checked his bags... nope. He asked if they left a note for him as to their whereabouts... nope! Immediately panic set in and confusion was right around the corner quickly approaching like a hooker on the Strip in Vegas. Was Scott stuck in New Orleans? Would his friends ditch him like that? After sitting on a couch in the front lobby for 10 minutes that must have felt like hours, another hotel front desk worker came back from a break, saw him on the couch, and asked if he was Scott. His friends left the note with her and she told them they were eating lunch on the roof deck across the street. Scott walked over there (all sweaty, same clothes as the night before, smelling worse than the NYC subways), went up to the roof, where he recieved a round of applause. Not just from our group, but from the entire roof deck thanks to his buddies. All was good in the world again. What lesson did he learn? Always carry your cell phone, but to this day he can't walk into a Walmart without having a flashback that sends his body into moves that we haven't seen since Kevin Bacon in Footloose! Oh the memories we had... thats what life is about. Its not the number of breaths we take, but the moments that take our breath away... and I'm guessing he lost his breath a number of times during that little experience! Priceless! LOL

Are you done yet?!?

This is a follow-up to a prior posting titled “Turn that black cloud upside-down”. (If you haven't read that one, you definitely should!) Is this a case of life imitating art? You be the judge. In most horror films or thrillers, there is a moment near the end that you feel like the main character if finally in the clear. There is that moment you think all danger and threats are gone, but then out of no where there is one last stand by the villain/monster/killer. A wise person knows that no one is safe until the credits start to roll. I guess the credits hadn’t started to run on the most recent chapter in my life. I endured a break up with a long term girlfriend, a hit and run car accident while I was asleep at night, getting my wisdom teeth out, and my car breaking down Christmas night on my way back to Boston. Let’s also throw in there a devastating loss by the Sox in the ALCS and Tom Brady going down to major injury in week 1 of the NFL season while we are at it. I thought 2009 signified the rolling of those credits… I was wrong!

It was a nice normal weekend. I stayed in Friday night to clean the apartment and rest up from a long week at work. Besides it was sub-zero temperatures outside. Saturday was laundry in the morning and the gym in the afternoon. I was supposed to go on a date Saturday night, but postponed it due to circumstances I won’t get into right now. I ended up meeting up with some old friends for a few drinks, so all was good. I woke up Sunday to find the snow had started. I really wanted to stay in and watch movies then football, but it was my cousins’ birthdays… their first birthdays in fact. A big day for the twins. So I did the right thing and braved the elements. I picked up some nice outfits at the Carter’s store in the Watertown Mall and was on my way back to my hometown. Travel was slow due to the snow and the complete lack of plows or sanding on the highways. I was locked into a zone driving as if I was playing Gran Turismo. Then out of the blue some moron decided that it was a good time to cut in front of me and put his brakes on. I followed suit and applied my own brakes to prevent an accident with him. Well the next 5 seconds felt like an hour, but I only remember pieces of it. My car started to slide and I no longer had control. My car did a complete 360 as it was simultaneously heading towards the breakdown lane. Too say that I was a bit concerned at this point would be like saying Apollo Creed took a slight beating from the Russian Ivan Drago. My car smashed into the snow bank formed on the outer edge of the breakdown lane. This was actually a good thing because it drastically reduced my speed and righted the direction of my car. I proceeded to head down the side of the hill off the highway into a little ditch finally stopping as I hit a nice metal stake in the ground. I am also grateful for the placement of that stake because it was better than the other options I saw like trees! I immediately took a deep breathe and looked around to make sure I was in one piece. I was perfectly ok physically… the same can’t be said mentally. Boy, I was pissed off! I jumped out of the car, walked up the side of the hill and what did I find… nothing! The guy didn’t even bother to stop to see if I was ok. Literally the definition of adding insult to injury. A random car stopped to see if I was ok, which was nice. This guy also happened to be a BC grad and he waited with me until the state cops arrived. As he took off the state cop got out of the car and I was frazzled. Not only had I been in my first car accident in my life, but I’d never seen a cop so hot before. This female state trooper was like an angel. If I wasn’t so rattled from the accident when she asked me if I was ok I might have told her I wasn’t sure and I would prefer that she give me a quick physical exam!! Anyways, an hour and half later the tow truck pulled my car out of the ditch and I was on my way to the birthday party. Oh, and it only cost me $175.10 for my troubles.

The point is that I have my fingers crossed that I’ve watched the final credits on what has been just a frustrating 4 months! I am, however, trying to put a positive twist on everything. The girlfriend wasn’t “the one”, so it was for the best. My wisdom teeth coming out now did suck pretty badly, but it had to be better than an infection 5 years down the road. My car breaking down on Christmas was a huge annoyance, but at least it happened 15 minutes from my parents’ house. On I-93 in route to work would have been a disaster. And while today was just flat out terrible, I could have been hurt pretty bad and I basically came away without a scratch… ok, a small one on my shin from banging the center console. I can’t decide if I have been insanely unlucky lately or incredibly fortunate. Either way, I’m ready for things to go back to normal and relatively uneventful… for a little while.

Some Boston sports fans just need to settle down

I have been a Boston sports fan since I was roughly 8 years old. My first real memories of watching sports were somewhere around 1985-86. Back at that time we had the Celtics atop the NBA on an annual basis. I even remember watching parts of the 1986 Finals where the Boston Celtics won their 16th NBA title. At that time we also had the Patriots miracle run to the Super Bowl. Unfortunately they ran into a bulldozer and got hammered by one of the 5 best teams in NFL history by my accounts. The Chicago Bears put a beating on us worse than those awful racist cops did to Rodney King. On a side note, Rodney has appeared in VH1's Celebrity Rehab and is getting his life back together. All in all, it seems like he is staying clean and when he isn’t using… he’s a reasonably nice guy. Anyways, back to the early years in my sports viewing history. Finally, we had the heart and soul of Boston, our one and only Boston Red Sox. I remember watching pieces of that wild World Series with the New York Mets. I even remember being woken up in game 6 late in the game (8th inning I believe) to watch the Sox win their first title in 68 years…oops! That didn’t happen the way I had hoped. Instead I had my little, fragile heart ripped right out with a comedy of errors ultimately leading to the Sox choking and the Mets winning the World Series. And a quick thanks Dad for waking me up to watch Stanley throw wild pitches and Buckner miss grounders that I surely could have fielded when I was in little league. Little did I know that this era in Boston sports history was as good as it was going to get for some time.

Years passed by and I started playing sports myself, which only made my dedication to our local teams that much stronger. Yes, I was a fan during some pretty terrible seasons from all of our teams. My allegiance to my teams never waivered, although my impatience with them certainly was tested on many occasion. The losing seasons, the disappointments, the heartbreaks mounted year after year. We were so close at times and ultimately every season ended with a good ole, “we will get ‘em next season”. And I’m certainly not alone in this. Boston itself and the surrounding areas are very into sports. Boston is one of the great sports towns in this country. I personally feel it is the best sports town in America, but I’m sure others have differing opinions so I will gently say that Boston is clearly one of the top five sports towns in the US… and that’s not up for debate. You may ask how I can comment on other cities around our country. Well, I travel quite a bit for my job and I’ve even lived in New York City for 2 years. My travels have taken me to Chicago, Denver, Milwaukee, Las Vegas, Miami, Seattle, Dallas, and many more. Boston is truly a place where there is an overwhelming amount of diehard sports fans. I will admit some are knowledgeable and others are the type of person that you see on the side of the road, watch them, and wonder how they get out of bed in the morning without severely injuring themselves. At the end of the day, the support here is overwhelming and if you ever want to experience baseball in its truest form you have to come to a game at Fenway Park (preferably when we are playing the hated Yankees). The electricity in the air on a nightly basis is something to marvel at.

If we fast forward to the 21st century, the years of heartbreak were halted when the golden boy with the golden arm Tom Brady led our New England Patriots to a Super Bowl victory over the Rams in 2001. Since then, Tommy terrific and the rest of Belichik’s boys have amassed 4 trips to the Super Bowl in 8 years. The have won 3 of them cementing them as the team of this decade in the NFL. The Patriots winning ways seemed to rub off on our #1 team, the Boston Red Sox. After possibly the most devastating game 7 collapse in baseball history in 2003, the Sox rallied and put all of their demons to rest with the greatest comeback imaginable in sports history… erasing a 3-0 deficit to the rival Yankees and winning the ALCS in dramatic and unbelievable fashion. The Sox reeled off 4 straight wins against the Yankees propelling them into the World Series against a Cardinal team that just didn’t stand a chance. Not only did the Sox win a 2nd World series in 2007 by sending the Rockies packing faster than a Brad cast away Jennifer Aniston during the filming of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, but they also have become the model franchise this decade in MLB. Finally, the Celtics jumped on board the victory train, made some key off season acquisitions that led to a worst to first story in ’07-08. The Celtics cracked the whip on the Lakers in the NBA finals like a seasoned dominatrix. The took our hated rivals from the west coast and sent them home looking sillier than Tom Cruise jumping up and down on Oprah’s couch! All in all we are talking about 6 titles from these 3 teams in the past 7 years. This coming after a 15 year span where we took a big bagel, zero!

So my question to the sports fans of Boston who are down on the Sox for losing the ALCS to the Rays is why? To those people disappointed the Patriots missed the playoffs… are you serious? To people ready to bury the Celtics after a recent losing streak… back off! I think Boston sports fans have become greedy. They are so used to the winning ways of our teams that they have somehow come down with a case of Jason Bourne’s disease. They have amnesia and miraculously forgot that we used to be the people that always came up just short. We were the town begging for just one title to break the curse of the Bambino. We were the people talking about Bird, McHale, and Parrish 10 years after they retired. Just ask Rick Pitino how irritating that can be, lol. I think we need to be more appreciative of the great stretch we are likely winding down on. I think we need to be proud of a Patriots team that went 11-5 with Matt Cassel at the helm. Pop quiz, who took more snaps from center in an actual game in the past 6 years…Matt Cassel or Tim Hasselbeck?? The answer is Tim. I like Tim, in fact we sat next to each other in marketing at Boston College and worked on projects together. But the fact remains he was a career backup in the NFL and is already retired at age 30 doing some nice work for ESPN. The Patriots had a super season. How about the Red Sox? They traded away the best right-handed hitter I’ve ever seen and they still made it to game 7 of the ALCS. They were literally a couple hits here or there from another World Series. The way they came together as a team and rallied to that point was fairly impressive. Lets face it we could live in a place like Seattle where they aren’t just losing, they are losing teams to other cities. We could live in Minnesota. When is the last time they did anything of note? Other than Kirby Puckett getting arrested on domestic violence charges?? I think the tough season or the seasons that come up just short help you appreciate the titles. Without one, you couldn’t truly enjoy the other. So keep on cheering for your teams Boston, but the next time you feel the need to bash our teams for not being the best all the time, try to relax and remember the immortal words of Forrest Gump, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get”.

Taxis in Boston

Let me start by saying that I've lived in a very small town in Mass, Boston, and the one and only New York City. I've also traveled quite a bit within the states to places like Chicago, Dallas, Milwaukee, Las Vegas, Seattle, and so on... The point would be that I have a good basis for evaluating public transportation, specifically cabs.

Boston is by far the worst city (or town) in the US for cab service. This is coming from someone who thinks Boston is a great city. I love the RedSox, Celtics, Patriots, the heritage of the city, the nightlife, the cobblestone, the duck tours, the mix of young and old, etc... However, the cab situation is literally unbearable!

When I lived in NYC I could step out my front door, throw my hand up and there would be 8-10 cabs engaging in what looked to be a demolition derby to be the one to pull over and pick me up. In fact I think that is now the required training if you are interested in getting into Nascar! The sheer number of cabs compared to the population in NYC has to be 10-20 times greater than it is in Boston. One night I called for a cab and they told me it would be 15 minutes. Well, 45 minutes later I was still waiting. I called back and they said the delay was due to the fact that he only had 8 cabs active right now. Seriously! Eight drivers active! What kind of operation are they running here?? That would be like Macy's in Herald Square only having 5 people working in the entire store... or better yet it would be like showing up to the Super Bowl with a 4 man roster!! In NYC you can look down any street and I'd be shocked if you didn't see multiple cabs. In Boston, you can stand on the busiest road in the city for 15 minutes and you might not see any. And on a cold night in Boston, there is a better chance of seing Halley's comet or a giraffe playing a game of basketball with a polar bear than there is of hailing a cab.

Say you are one of the lucky few to call a cab company and actually have one arrive and pick you up... the service is literally ridiculous. If you aren't traveling far enough for their liking, the literally yell at you because the cab fare isn't going to be big enough. I'm sorry, I didn't realize that taking a cab was now a situation of negotiation. Even yesterday I had an incident with a cab driver. My destination was about 2.5 miles from my apartment. We were about 3/4 the way there and we passed a couple trying to hail a cab (good luck to them) and my cab driver pulls over and asks if I could get out here. I was baffled?!? Why does he want me to get out about 1/2 mile from friend Dan's place? He told me he wanted to pick up that couple for his next fare. I kindly said that he should start moving again, drop me off at my destination and then go back and get them. He said he wanted to go get them now and asked again if I was ok getting out here. Now I began to get irritated. I kindly asked him how we would feel if the next time he was out to eat at a restaurant if the waitor came out with his meal and told him the chef wanted to get started on the next order so he only half cooked his grilled salmon?? He was utterly confused... and I could see the gears in his head turning. There may have been a little smoke coming out his ears?? For fear that his head might explode like Smith from the Matrix trying to make sense of my analogy, I told him to forget about it, keep his mouth shut and drive to my destination. He finally did his job, drove that last half mile and pulled over for me. Sounds like a happy ending, right?? Not so fast! The fare came to $6.50 and I only had a pair of $20s on me. I would norally have given him $9.00, but due to his desire to ditch me in the snow a 1/2 mail from Dan's place I wanted to give him $8.00 and asked him to give me $12.00 back. Surprise, surprise, he doesn't have any one dollar bills!! He only has 5s and 10s. How can a cab driver not have any 1s? That is like a surgeon operating on a patient and then realizing he doesn't have any sutures or stitches to close them up! I didn't believe him for an instant. Normally I wouldn't care about the $2.00 and would have just asked for a $10.00 back, but this guy is the person who wanted to let me out 4 blocks before my destination. I thought about asking him to get out and empty his pockets to prove he didn't have any ones, but then I decided that based on his actions he probably has a tougher life than me and I dont need to embarass him further. I don't need those $2.00 as bad as he does either, so I didn't have him get out and I let him have the big tip despite his awful service... but I did repeat his driver ID number back to him as I exited the cab to get him thinking he was in hot water :) Hopefully, it worried him enough that he treated the rest of his customers that day properly! What's the point... its almost always better to be the bigger person... when in Boston really consider all of your travel options... and if you are an entepreneur, look into starting a cab company in Boston... we need a good one!!

And so '09 is in full swing...

This should be a short piece. I feel like I've been lazy and its time for an update. As I don't have a specific topic on my mind that I am compelled to write about, I will give you more of a "week in review". It was a long week at work. It was such a long week that I needed to spice it up a bit in Lawrence to keep moving forward. Plan A was to make a series of doctored photos for comic relief, which included one of me holding a pile of women's clothes with my head on fire. The team at work not only found it funny, but commented on my creativity. Plan B was to go out for drinks with the team on a Tuesday night. Its safe to say that Lawrence (and its bars) are a bit sketchy to say the least. Lets put it this way, I've had more run-ins with the guys wearing tinfoil crowns on their heads and wonderful capes (that I have to assume they acquired by purchasing a Dracula costume from Ricky's) in the streets of NYC than there were paying customers at this total dive bar in Lawrence. The funny part is that one of the patrons (who likely had more to drink than the entire bus load of losers on Brett Michaels new show) tried to speak with one of my co-workers and it was questionable whether he made more or less sense that those crazy clowns with the tinfoil crowns generally do when they used to yell at me on my way to the gym for being a "white devil". You have no idea how badly I wanted to walk to BK on my way home from the gym in Herald Square and put on one of those kiddy crowns they give you, walk over to my favorite bunch and ask them if I could join! LOL Anyways, I am getting off topic. The night in Lawrence ended with an unexpected trip to Taco Bell and catching the season premier for one of the top 3 shows on TV, Nip/Tuck. I could do a whole blog about that show. It is truely nothing short of superb entertainment. Any show that features storylines like people having sex with your half sibling, a talent agent that kills people and stuffs them like teddy bears, and a daughter poisoning her mom's new girlfriend... has got me as a loyal follower. Wednesday and Thursday were long days at work that I finished off with my classic workout at the gym to get a nice sweat on! Friday I tried something a little different... I followed up my post-work gym session with a little thing I like to call a date. I'm definitely not going into details as that is sure to cause me more headaches than anything, but I will say that my limited exposure to this nice young lady leaves me interested in hanging out more. Since I am a big poker buff I can make a nice analogy. I'd say so far its like looking at your hole cards and seeing a big pocket pair. You haven't seen the flop, turn and river so you dont if your hand is a winner yet, but you definitely like where you're at and have a good feeling about it with the limited info you have to work with! Lastly, there was full weekend of NFL playoffs. So far we have 2 of the 3 teams I definitely dont want to win the Super Bowl eliminated. The Giants were firmly slapped around by the Eagles today and the Colts were already eliminated last week by the lowly Chargers. Its looking good, but like Jack Bauer, I know its always toughest to kill off that last terrorist or villain. I feel good that the Ravens can put away the Steelers and make me a happy camper, but I'm not going to celebrate until I see them dead and buried with my own eyes... because if you don't you could run into Tony Almeida when you least expect it!

Score one for the home team!

This is one is for sports lovers... or BC grads. After the BC football team let us down in the Music City Bowl against a weaker Vanderbilt team, the basketball team has stepped up to make that loss a distant memory. The football team once again found itself in the ACC Championship game for the second year in a row. And they again lost to the Hokies of Virginia Tech. Don't even get me started on their mascot... what a joke?!? A hokie is a turkey. We lost to a group of thugs on the VTech Turkeys football team. You might ask why they are thugs?? Well, they always play dirty and trash talk endlessly. I need to only name one alumn of VTech for you to understand. Maybe you heard of Michael Vick! Is he out of jail already? Anyways, our loss to VTech landed us in the Music City Bowl against Vanderbilt. BC is a far superior team, but had one problem... and injured starting Quarterback which left us to start a freshman. Not just a freshman, but one that can't throw the ball. I mean this guy could've been standing on the deck of a half sunk Titanic and still missed the water!! Watching him play Quarterback is like watching a bunch of midgets try to hump a door knob... or better yet like watching Sarah Palin try to find Africa on a world map!! Not pretty folks! So with a disappointing loss to a terrible Vanderbilt team all BC alums could look forward to was the basketball team and hope they would be good enough to make the NIT this year. Well, watching Boston College go down to Chapel Hill and soundly slap around Tyler Hansbrough and the rest of the Tar Heels was amazing. This was the team people were talking about going undefeated this year. Not only was it an amazing BC victory again the #1 ranked team in college basketball, but we got to do it against a team in North Carolina that is generally overhyped, helped by the referees at every turn, and is led by a guy that just annoys the daylights out of me. He annoys me so much that I think I am going to start a rumor that he is the ringleader in a deadly cat fighting pit in honor of that disgusting loser Mr.Vick getting out of jail. So all in all the holidays were a victory for BC students and grads around the country. And current BC students please keep up the good work because despite the fact I may not even have gotten in if the standards were as high then as they are now... the more you do, the better my diploma looks!!

Turn that black cloud upside-down

We all go through phases in life where things continue to go in our favor. On the flip-side there are times that it seems like what can go wrong... will go wrong for you. Some people think bad things happen in "threes". I dont buy into that theory, but I will say I am getting a little suspicious of recent events. I think a breakup with a longterm girlfriend, a hit and run car accident, pulling multiple muscles in your neck, getting 4 wisdom teeth out, having your car breakdown Christmas night, and most recently driving up to wachusett mountain on your day off to go skiing only to find they are at capacity and that you drove out there for nothing seems like more than "three" crappy things?!? It reminds me of my time in NYC. There was a 3 month period out there that was rough. So much so, that I was beginning to think someone or something in the universe was out to get me :) The capper was running out for lunch one day and going around the corner to Burger King because it was quick and easy. I entered to find a line that snaked about 18 people deep. I decided to wait and when I was finally at the front and ready to order some guy walked in the door, cut the whole line, stepped in front of me and began to order. Who the heck did this guy think he was?!?! I tapped him on the shoulder to tell him there was a line. The nice person I am I was giving him the benefit of the doubt that he didn't notice the line?? He proceeded to turn around and punch me in the chest!! I was a little stunned, but he wasn't impressively strong so it didn't hurt and barely knocked me back a 1/2 step. I raised my hands in a fighting position to defend myself if he continued ( i would have beat this guy worse than the Celtics did the Lakers in game 6 of the '08 Finals). He then turned to the cashier and ordered a Whopper Jr... everyone in the BK saw what happened and was stunned. The cashier rang up his order and gave him his food! He walked out and I was utterly confused. I would love to know what goes on in this guy's head... or atleast get a glimpse into his mind. If I could do such a thing I think an accurate portrayal or visual would be something along the lines of a blindfolded rat juggling a series of knives : ) As he walked out of BK, I also wasn't sure if I should be more mad at him or the cashier for giving him his food?? How could they serve this idiot that has no regard or respect for those around him or society in general?? It was like that classic situation of finding out your girl cheated on you... are you more mad at her or the guy that she is fooling around with??? Ironically this has also happened to me in a prior New Years Eve night on the dance floor of the Big Easy!! Nothing like ringing in the New Year to discover that the girl you are seeing has her tongue jammed further down some random dude's throat than Amy Winehouse has fallen into a K-hole in recent months! While we're are it, lets give a nice shout-out to B.Park!! Anyways, remembering that she was actually the more guilty party I left the tool on the dance floor alone, called her trash, and left the bar. Which brings me back to BK and I decided I couldn't really fault the cashier, so I just ordered, went back to Modell's and told my division what happened as I ate lunch and looked at Under Armour forecasts. This brings me back to my original point of sometimes it feels like a black cloud is just following you around and nothing can go right. The point is that isn't real and you make your own choices. Luck is the intersection of preparation and opportunity!! So despite the recent rash of weird events happening around me I plan to continue as always, stay positive, be grateful I have a great life with super friends and a great family. Life is like a rollercoaster... you might as well try to enjoy the ride!! Bring on 2009... and maybe consider skipping fast food moving forward... or atleast going to Wendy's if you can't resist : )