3-Day Rollin'

Hey ya'll, Big D has blogged three days in a row! (Go 'head, go 'head, it's your birthday) I'm on a roll but I can't promise you it will continue. But I'll do my best.

Tomorrow (starting at 12 midnight) NYC may be facing a strike of the transit workers (MTA). This means that the public transportation system will be on lock down. No subways, no buses, no shuttles-nothing! This will be huge. It will cripple the NYC workforce, not to mention the tourists. Hundreds of thousands of people are going to have to find another way to work, school, the doctor, the hairdreeser, drug dealer, etc. I read that 4 out of 5 people take public transportation to work. Of course taxis will be available, but it's even difficult to get a cab when it's raining out and that's when the subway works.
And get this....tomorrow the weather is going to be horrible. Raining/snowing. AKA-Wintery mix. Oooof!

Now, I can get into the city because the bus I ride is not part of the MTA, however once I get here.....that convenient little two-stop 7 train I ride isn't going to be functioning. I'm not too far to walk but my ass ain't gonna be tryin' to fight no weather to get to this damn place.

I may be able to get Bas to pick me up. And if that becomes the case, well then I'll have to waste some time with him before I come in. (he he)

Tomorrow is our Christmas party for work. Well, let me back up there a minute. Christmas dinner is more the term. We are only six people deep at this office, so it is hardly possible to have an actual party, so to speak. In my mind, a party has to be a minimum of ten. Otherwise it's a "get-together"
We tried to make reservations at this fancy schmancy restaurant called Asia de Cuba, but those mugs didn't have anything until 10pm. And I called 3 weeks ago!
So, we are going to have dinner at a great little German place that I recommended. Heidelberg. Not a lot of fanfare, but nonetheless, really good. Bas and I go eat there quite often. Especially in the winter. They have a great selection of beer served in giant mugs, delicious kraut and nice big weiners, or bratwurst if your mind is less dirty than mine.

Well, I'll let you all know aht is the dillio with the strike. If it happens it should make for for a very interesting blog.

Brrrrrrr!

It's cold. Well that is really quite the understatement. It was 14 degrees when I woke up this morning.

New York is freezing. My second winter here. And I am still not used to it. I want to cry everytime I have to drag my ass out and wait for the that damn bus at 7:30 in the morning. My face turns to ice. If someone flicked it, it would shatter into thousands of pieces and bury into the snow below my feet.
And speaking of face, what is the deal with my skin in this weather? I am always ashy. And I've tried a slew of different cocktails and potions to stop this from happening. From lotion to babyoil to petroleum jelly to olive oil to mayonaisse (ok, not mayo-but I'm not opposed) and every combination and mixture of any and all of these. And to no avail. And then because I am so dry, I become itchy.
And that's not even to mention my crackling lips, made worse because I lick them-like L.L. Cool J. Or my nose that is so dry it bleeds.
It's absolute madness. Who the hells invented living in this type of climate when there are so many places in the world with which to live that has much milder winters?
The only reason I can think to live here is that my hair is hittin'. It's hot. It's mad hot. Not an ounce of humidity, no frizz, whatsoever. I can blow it or curl it and it looks the same when I come home 8 hours later. Down south there is always SOME humidity. Even in the dead of winter.

But it is love that keeps me here in this God-forsaken cold. My husband has a very good job here and also a child. Otherwise, we would be heading south as of last year.

My friend Peter and his wife Isabel and their daughter were here the last five days from Florida. They couldn't believe that it was even possible to be this cold. Peter brought a sports jacket and he told me he thought that would be fine. He was wrong. See, when you live in Florida you don't even understand the concept of a coat. Nobody owns one unless they visit these here northern parts on a regular basis. I bought my first coat ever just last year. A Floridian thinks that the layering is all you need to stay warm. If you throw on 3 or 4 sweatshirts, you're good to go. No, no, no people!
Here, that is what you put on under your coat. Well, I do. Most New Yorkers don't even do that. See they're used to it. They have a warm outfit plus a coat and that's it. I always take it to the next level, layering like a mug (for future reference-the polite way to say mother fucker).

The one upside to this particular winter, however is that we have a car this year so we can drive places instead of walking to subway stations and hailing taxis, while everyone else wants one too.

Right now I have on an undershirt, a long sleeve cotton turtle neck shirt and another turtle neck on top of that. I am waering two pairs of socks and when I go outside, I will put on my knee-length coat, my hat, my gloves and my legwarmers-total 80's style.
The sad part is....it hasn't even gone down to the single digits yet. Wahhhhh! Poor me. How will I ever survive?

Perhaps there will come the day where I will get used to this weather. My blood will be as thick as molasses. I'll just slip into my warm outfit and a coat and be good in the hood.

Celebrity Sightings

As most of you already know (you, meaning Anthony) I live in New York City. So of course there are celebrities doing regular everyday normal people activities all the time here.
There are so many people walking around in this city just trying to live their lives that famous people can go out and not get a crazy amount of attention. New York just kinda has its own attitude about celebrities. You see someone and you're just kinda like, "hey there was so and so," and you keep walking.
Where I'm from in Florida, it's not as common to see celebrities, so people would get all stupid if a singer or an actor or a comedian showed their face in public. They would be taking pictures with their camera phones and asking for autographs and pointing and staring and just acting like pure lunatics. A crowd would definitely form around that person.

I did see OJ Simpson at the Clevelander on South Beach. I guess South Beach isn't too bad on the celebrity mobbing tip either. You do see a few celebs hanging out there from time to time. But people were definitely walking up to OJ's smiling ass saying hello, high-fiving, walking back and forth 50 times to look at him and shit like that.
Oh that reminds me, I'll have to write about the time I hung out with N'Sync one night in Miami as well. Minus Lance. And before Justin Timberlake got to so damn hot. He was still sportin' those whack ass curls and was too young for my taste. Otherwise, I would have been acting like a lunatic with my camera phone, autograph requests and staring. Like a star struck fool. I would have shamelessly threw myself on him. Damn, and just about six months later, he's topless on the cover of Rolling Stone without the curls . But I'll discuss that night in another post.
I know, I know you all really want to hear this story. But I I have to save some of the more exciting stories so that I actually have things to write about other than new cars and fish that actually have personalities.

Oh and in another post I'll discuss the time I hung with Lenny Kravitz and gave him a joint.

See people once upon a time I actually had an exciting life with cool stories to tell. Too bad during my youth blogging didn't exist. Then perhaps I would have more than one person in my audience.

Anyway, now on to the NYC sightings. I'll number them but it is in no particular date order level or importance:

1. Sandra Bernhardt standing in front of a school waiting to pick her child up.
2. Heidi Klum getting on the elevator in my office building.
3. Tommy Hilfiger coming out of the bank.
4. David Allen Grier in SoHo walking with an Asian chic and a shopping bag in his hand.
5. Puff Daddy walking past a floral shop (where I was working). He grabbed a branch with flowers on it and said, "That's nice."
6. Colin Quin (from the game show Remote Control and the Colin Quin Show on Comedy Central). He was on the elevator in my building and he asked me if I knew where to get an alarm clock around here.
7. The blond girl with the spikey from Beverly Hills 90210 (for the older peeps) who offered Brandon ecstacy. She was at this outdoor Italian restaurant eating.
8. Tracey Ullman with Kevin Klein and Phoebe Cates (from Fast Times at Ridgemont High) at the restaurant Mars 2112 with their kids. My girl Lisa's nephew lost his wallet and Phobe turned it in.
9. Al Roker walking on 86th street with his grandchildren. This is when he was already skinny.
10. Richard Kind (the guy that played Paul Lassiter on Spin City. He was on the subway-believe it or not.
11. Deon Sanders at Laguardia airport. He was wearing a white mink coat and talking on a cell phone.
12. Tiki Barber, the football player at a the bar in Tribeca Hotel. He went to the bathroom, so Bas made sure he went at the same time to get a closer look.
13. Jean Smart (the lady that played Charlene on Designing Women). She came into the flower shop that I was working part-time at before I found this job.
14. Willie Hernandez (the gay latin dude from Real World-Philly). He was in Greenwich Village facing this guy and holding his hands.

Not a real long list, but I've only lived here for a year. I'm sure I'll add to this. And maybe (if I'm lucky) I'll see that Justin again. And he'll remember me. And we'll have lunch together. And he'll fall in love and tell me he wants to leave Cameron for me.
But alas, I'll have to break the poor boy's heart. Because a man has already stolen my heart. And that's my husband, Bas.
I know, gag.
But it's true.