icebrrrg.com

Life moves apace, and adjustments are continually made … the Chicago trip was an excellent break from NYC. Always great to see my sister, and her dog Lexi is just the picture of cute rebellion. Hopefully she won’t mope around too much now that I’ve left.

Had some weird dreams about the ex right before waking up. Just part of the saying goodbye to that part of my life. I hope all’s well with her and she’s getting what she needs to be happy … and that’s all I’ve got.

For my part, my EMT classes start tonight at 6, and I’m juiced to start something completely new. I’ve never done anything like this before (university just seems … different, for some reason). Wish me luck, and hopefully I won’t screw up the CPR mannequin to badly. =)

My bud, Evan Field, has this band, Honor by August. They opened for Bon Jovi at the MCI Center recently. No, really. They have a chance to do it again up here at the Meadowlands … do your part and vote to bring them to the NY area!

Good luck, bud … and thanks to Paul for bringing this to our attention!

Last night I thoroughly enjoyed smoking a cigarette while sitting in a bar, drinking a top-notch margarita. While Chicago has passed legislation outlawing smoking in bars, it won’t go into full effect until 2008 … so for now, it’s still a civilized city.

The food in this town is excellent. We ate at Adobo last night, me and Sis and her supercool friends — mostly Spanish food, and those margaritas … mmm. It’s been a good visit. The work went well, had dinner with my boss, woke up way to early every day … and I’ve been spending good time with Sis and her Dog of Unintentional Annoyance. Lexi’s a pain, but she’s a sweetheart. We’re trying to train her not to jump up on and bite men.

Today we’re going to the park to play with the pup, and tonight is the Australian Day party set. Should be fun!

The most valuable domain name ever — I won’t link to it here as I’m not in the pr0n business — has just sold for $14 million. It’s very true that sex sells … now its dot-com represenation can finally get a fair shake!

I’m sitting at my gate in LaGuardia, waiting to take off … listening to some Five for Fighting and watching the sun come up. It’s a Good Day so far. It will be weird to land in Chicago and not call her, but I can get used to that. We’re an interesting species, we can get used to anything. Life’s too short to whine and moan all the time … live each day, breathe, revel in friends and family, see, explore, muse and wander. I’ll let you know how it’s working.

Last night I went back to Shebeen in SoHo — Kenton’s in town, so we got a few of the old ProxiCrew out to give him a welcome. He’s doing great, biz school really agrees with him. I can’t help but feel old when I’m sitting next to him tho – he practically vibrates outta the room when he gets going. I’ll be out in AZ in Feb, and hopefully we can do a little hiking in the Phoenix area. Should be cool …

Wish me a safe flight.

Yesterday was a Good Day — saw Dan and Catherine, chilled with Paul and Blake over dinner and TV, ripped down the wallpaper in the dining room and hallway. But at the end of it, they’re still bad nights. I just found out that work wants me to go to SoCal to train some people. Great. Two weeks later and I still have to change the channel whenever the scene is shot in SoCal (so I don’t watch all that much TV these days). Not looking forward to that trip.

Yesterday was Day 2 of the show (see previous post for Day 1) … basically more of the same, only with more friends. It was an awesome day on the whole.

Woke up late and met Danny Boy and Catherine for some breakfast and coffee, then he and I drove in. Scored some free parking on 30th, and moseyed in to the show. I had no goals other than buying a Battery Tender (which I did) and getting my Help! They’re All Out To Get Me book (by Ralph L Angelo Jr) signed (which I did). Dan was looking to sit on some new bikes since he might be in the market soon. We ran into Ev and Gina on their second tour, as well as Bobby, Sharad, Mike and Maria, Johnny and Donna, Hooligans all … Tommy Mac and wife Karen, and a few other CFers as well. We would break up and meet all over the place while we were there. We never did see Jimmy, but I hear Bryce eventually woke up and made it in.

6 of us went to Chevys for some fresh mex … I can’t believe I couldn’t eat my whole plate. Hip hip and all that for eating less, I guess. The Rog’s split off for some Times Sq fun before heading back on the super-convenient Bus to Joisey, Danny Boy split off for home (thanks for taking my Battery Tender, bud!), and the Stefs and I headed over to the ESPN Zone for some fun.

The CF gang was at a table getting some dinner, though, and the MotoGP racer game was down, so there wasn’t much fun to be had. We went out on a short tour of Times Sq as the temps dropped, and came back to hang out with the CF folk who were left. From there I said my goodbyes.

A great day if you can’t go for a long ride — great seeing everyone!

After, I trekked down to the south side to chill with Erock and Ali-moo, and wish her a happy birthday. We played with the asses of cats, gave our lungs a workout and sipped away whilst catching up. Very cool. After that, I headed over to Shebeen to meet gCue, Sil and MZ, Mark and Jean, and the Shneks, up from DC! We got polluted. Shebeen is modeled after a South African speakeasy, and it’s a great pub to hang at on a cold Saturday night. Unfortunately, everyone now knows about it, and it was packed until about 2:30am. It was awesome catching up with the cool kids, and many were the words of wisdom imparted unto me re: my recent loss. Thanks, guys. Oh, and the “my gf of 4 years just dumped me” line works really well on young drunk girls. This ain’t such a bad position to be in after all.

Schweeeet … today was Day 1 of the NYC International Motorcycle Show, held at the Javits Center. I took a hooky day (well, approved PTO, but still!) and rolled into the city with Paulie. Some of us Hooligang hooligans met for brunch at the Cheyenne Diner … not too shabby for some AM eats. Ev and Gina, Abe, Nick and Za joined Paulie and I for the fuel-up session, and then we walked over to the show in the glorious 55-degree sunny day.

We breezed past the chumps in line … ah, early purchase of the tickets works every time. And we were immediately blinded by the Progressive Girls, in tight PVC dresses, little headlights pressing bravely through the thin fabric. It was going to be a good show! We got so see some even hotter chicquitas as we walked from booth to booth.

We were joined throughout the day by Alessandro and Ed, and some of the Vifferisti (S-Rod, Bill “Papa to Be” were rolling with Julio). The Honda booth was right there at the main entrance … it’s a pity there’s not much new there that I’d want to drool over, save some of the OR bikes. Shame, that. Yammy had two booths, one for the “real” Yamahas and another for the new “Star” metric cruiser brand. Ducati had a smaller booth, H-D was filling some acreage, Kawi showed us how ugly a motorcycle could be, Aprilia was there as was just about everyone else … the real winners for booth “gotta go there” – ness in my mind were Yamaha, BMW, and … Toyota.

Yeah, Toyota was a major sponsor this year. They have a cool “ride” where you get in a Tacoma and it simulates an off-road ramble. It was a lot of fun. Plus, I need to buy a Tacoma, so I was enthralled. These things were designed to haul my motorcycles around — I love that.

Lots happening in the vendor area … I gots me some of the Lee Parks gloves that I’ve been lusting over since last year. They’re like a second skin. I can’t believe something this comfortable can be this protective. God bless the deer and elk that died to protect my hands …

Got some more Zooke to clean and keep the visor fog-free, drooled over some hotties in skimpy outfits, bumped into Michelle “IndustrialGrrrl” at the Ducati Monster Challenge (good luck, girl!), checked out the mounts for my Garmin Quest, and oh yeah … I picked up a 4-pack Speed Pass good for 4 track days with TPM. Gets me a Silver membership, included … so the price per day comes to around $146. Not too shabby. I was going to go for an 8 pack but the savings per day is $5, and who knows if something will happen to keep me from getting to 8 days in ‘06. The Speed Pass days do not carry over into ‘07, so better safe than sorry. If I want to go more I’ll shell out $165 per for the additional days. Linda wished me a happy new year, so that’s cool. Now I’m set to zip that new F4 around the track.

Abe and I ended the day by seeing the BOSS stunt show. This guy put his sons on motos starting at age 3 … by 5 they were road racing … and the rest is history. The show was kick ass … I have some movies up on the site, click and watch!

Movie 1
Movie 2
Movie 3
Movie 4

Pics from the whole first day of the show can be found here. I may post up more tomorrow, as I’m going back. More Hooligang! More motos! More more more.

Yesterday was a Bad Day. I finally got centered when I was able to get home and distract myself for a few hours on the computer. Here’s hoping today is better. Plan for the day? Deleting emails. I’ve found some that I’m reluctant to let go of, but I think I need to.

August 05, she wrote:
> i am going to work on my stuff so our stuff doesnt get all
> yucky. i am lucky to have someone willing to try so hard.
> i love you.

I responded:
great! i love you too.

I guess somewhere along the way she gave up working on stuff. That’s okay, though, I had done the same thing when we broke up the last time.

I don’t fault her for doing what she’s doing. I mourn the relationship and I miss her terribly, but I have had several months of the LD thing to get used to being alone. I miss the late night phone calls, and the good night / good-byes. I miss having someone to call when I see something particularly cool or weird, and I don’t know who I’ll call when I land somewhere neat when I’m on a trip. There’s a lot more that I’ll miss, but they’re not for a public forum. Oh yeah, and I’ll miss that sweet Cannondale I had bought for use out there.

I’ve been getting some great support via phone and email and in-person in the past week. Thank you very much, to my friends and family. If I tend to hole up and lick my wounds in the next few weeks and months, please don’t let me. Help me get out in the world, it’s the best way to heal.

So what am I doing today to get my mind off of things? Work won’t cut it, never does. The CPR class, I can’t seem to find anyone to tell me where it is tonight, as it seems John Jay is closed today for MLK day. So I’m looking at swanky all-in-one PDA cell phones. The newest lust device? The Qtek 9100. It’s identical to the iMate K-Jam which I’ve been harboring dark desires for. Do I continue emptying my bank account to find solace in material goods? Tune in next time to find out!