2005 – The Year in Review ... Part III

July

In the beginning of July, I vacationed in Boston! I spent the 4th of July there with Ben and his co-workers. If there’s one city to go on the 4th, it’s gotta be Boston. Forget NYC’s lame East River fireworks, I’ll take the Boston Esplanade any day.

from my blog entry of July 5...
I'm back from spending the past four days in Boston. Thanks to Ben for the company! A stay at the Boston Park & Plaza Hotel, meals and the opportunity to see the Boston Pops concert and fireworks show... who could refuse? Plenty of time was spent walking around the Esplanade, Harvard Yard, Newbury Street, Chinatown, the theater district, the Prudential Center, etc. And I have a new second-favorite baseball team - the Boston Red Sox. I caught the fever, hanging out with the locals, and bought myself a Red Sox shirt that I wore proudly. All in all, it was a very enjoyable weekend and a great getaway from NYC.

A week after the Boston trip, I had the first thing go wrong with my apartment. Namely, there was a water leak from the bathroom above mine, leading to a blog post that I titled “The Saga of the Water Bubbles”

from my blog entry of July 14...
I entered the bathroom this morning to take a shower and was greeted by the sight of water bubbles coming through the painted walls above the bathtub. Uh oh. Worst case scenarios flash through my mind - a pipe broke, they're going to have to break through the walls... in other words it'll be a huge mess. So I called my super and he checked out the bubbles. Good news! Nothing broke. According to him, the bubbles had dried up and what caused them was probably a huge spill in the apartment above mine. So he peeled away the paint where the bubbles used to be, will check on the water spillers above me and will call the building's painter to make my walls look nice again.

And after several more water leaks, they finally repaired the bathroom above mine and repainted my walls... one month later.

Also in the month of July I met blogger Tamara and provided moral support at her big film festival debut. At work I planned multiple, and I mean MULTIPLE ribbon-cutting ceremonies. And it was hot... really really hot, as exemplified in this classic blog post.

from my blog entry of July 25...
I have three excuses for not updating this blog as frequently as usual.
1) The heat wave has made me sluggish
2) I'm swamped at work
3) I'm too busy reading Harry Potter

Loved the new Harry Potter by the way.

August

In August I had my ten-year high school reunion. There was no ‘official’ reunion so a guy in my class reserved a Manhattan bar and spread the word through e-mail. It was interesting to reunite, if only for a night, with such an eclectic group.

from my blog entry of August 8...
Some of the people who I saw included...
Stacie - who told me that she had been reading this blog for quite sometime! One would say she's been 'lurking' around...
Dan - who is now bald with a goatee! Obviously, in H.S. he was not bald nor did he have said goatee.
Gina - who was the smartest person in our class, went to Harvard and is now lawyering it up. No surprise there!
Shiran - who I didn't recognize until he told me his name at which point I yelled "Holy shit, Shiran!"
Jane - who chastized me throughout the night for rejecting her Friendster request a few months ago.
Arthur - the senior class president who went on to West Point (for a bit)

And if it wasn’t enough that they had yet to fully repair the leaking water conditions from the bathroom above, my apartment simultaneously started experiencing electrical problems! Not just me, but a few apartments that were connected to the same line. So until the electrician made the necessary repairs, it was very aggravating. Consider that it was also 95 degrees at that time and you can see that I wasn’t a very happy camper.

With one month until the Democratic primary, I was rooting for my old boss, Anthony Weiner. I helped his campaign out a bit by rallying outside of the Time Warner Center before the NY1 debate and then I got to sit in the studio audience to watch the debate!

from my blog entry of August 17...
There was drama from the beginning with the question being : Would Anthony Weiner be able to make it? At 5:00 yesterday morning, Weiner checked himself into the emergency room and was diagnosed with a kidney stone. I've been told that this is one of the most painful conditions that a person can be afflicted with. Despite this setback, Weiner not only came to the debate, he excelled!

Also in August, I hosted trivia for the third time, this time with Jess as my co-host. I also saw Jess give a reading at KGB Bar, a unique venue!

from my blog entry of August 24...
Last night I hung out at KGB Bar with fellow communists and communist sympathizers. Well, not exactly. It used to be a communist hangout, back in the day when it was cool to be a communist. You know - before they were the "bad guys." Now its a bar and host venue of a reading series with lots of cool hammers & sicles and pictures of Lenin on the walls. And the walls are painted red with red curtains. Come to think of it, I should have ordered something with vodka in it.

The month also consisted of birthday parties for Bartow and Dave (those two were on the same night!) And I attended the U.S. Open tennis tournament – always one of my favorite events of the year.

The month closed with the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. For only the second time in my life, I became physically ill just from watching the news. (The other time was 9-11)

September

As September got underway, it was becoming more and more apparent how messed up things were in New Orleans.

from my blog entry of September 5...
I know, I know, one should not joke about the terrible tragedy in New Orleans. But without laughing, the sadness and devastation can become unbearable. So I was thinking of the song in The Simpsons episode of "A Streetcar Named Marge" that goes like this : "New Orleans! Home of pirates, drunks and whores, New Orleans! Tacky overpriced souvenir stores. If you want to go to hell, you should make that trip to the Sodom and Gomorrah on the Mississipp, New Orleans!" That episode aired back in 1993 and I wonder if it will be pulled from syndication, much like the episode that aired in 1997 featuring the World Trade Center was since pulled from syndication.

But there was good news in the family as my cousins Russell and Lisa had a baby boy! I attended the bris. Poor kid.

The Democratic Primary happened and I proudly did some last minute campaigning for Anthony Weiner. I also went to his victory party! Well, it would have been a victory party if he actually won. But second place with 29% of the vote was a fantastic showing, particularly considering he was at 5% in the polls when the race started.

from my blog entry of September 14...
Ah shit. It's over. Anthony Weiner is conceding the race to Freddy Ferrer. To quote Charlie Brown yet again... "Good grief." But I still had a fun few days campaigning for the guy. To see him rise in the polls from dead last to a close second was a thrill. On Monday I attended a campaign rally in Carroll Gardens. Then yesterday I helped his staff distribute flyers at the Park Slope subway stop. After that I stopped by Tuesday Night Trivia at the Baggott Inn where I did some more campaigning. And then after that it was off to the Primary Night Party at Table XII. Thanks to some of my friends from trivia for coming along. The party was a nervewracking affair as everyone's eyes were glued to the big screens showing the tallies on New York 1. I spoke with Anthony's parents and some of his staff members and I was even interviewed by the New York Sun for being Anthony's first intern! It didn't make today's paper but I am indebted to Britta (my new publicist) for setting up the interview. And according to Daryl, who was watching the ABC news, I was seen on camera! So that was exciting. Although Anthony gave a speech indicating that his campaign would proceed, I could tell from his body language that the odds did not look good. So here we are, the next morning and he is conceding defeat. My guess is that he felt the odds were against him and that rather than fight an uncertain battle, he was motivated to promote Democratic unity, with the realization that it would put him in a better position for any future campaigns. Whatever his reasons were, he has nothing to be ashamed of. When this campaign started, Anthony had almost zero name recognition. Today, much of the electorate knows who he is and with 29% of the vote, many have a positive impression of him.

The end of September also marked the end of another baseball season for the Mets. But this time, they actually had a successful year! With a winning record of 84-78, they did good. Hopefully they can build on that in 2006.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the conclusion of my Year in Review : October, November and December!