Joe Shlabotnik Is My Hero
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Below are the 12 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Peter, Not Joe" journal:
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03:07 pm
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Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream
Two strangest dreams, actually. In one, Mario Cuomo was giving a speech in my hotel room (at some fancy resort - we were there with friends). He brought his own lectern and everything. I got annoyed with his being there and we got into a big shouting match. It wasn't about policy; I just wanted him to go. I was quite riled up. I think I managed to get to the steam room eventually, but that's less strange.
In the other, we were hosting a dinner party (it wasn't our house, but it was - you know how dreams are), when Sue brought out a big box of pregnancy test sticks. All the women (and one guy - to be funny, I guess) took the test and everyone announced that they weren't pregnant. (Nobody had left the table, but the tests were taken non-explicitly and without peeing - again, you know how dreams are.)
I wonder what babies dream about. Nothing makes sense to a baby; do their dreams make even less sense than that?
Tags: random
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02:12 pm
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Professional Photographer
I'm now a professional photographer!
Technically speaking, that is. I just received a check from Langenscheidt Publishing, who is using my photo on the cover of their latest Syracuse street map! I've had lots of people use my photos on their blogs, I've had one used in a small magazine, but this is the first photo I've ever gotten money for. And I like it. (Langenscheidt is much nicer than other companies I know.)
Now if I could find someone to pay me for every photo I take, I could retire comfortably. Any takers?
Tags: random
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02:26 pm
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50 Things
I've been tagged so many times in that "25 Things About You" Facebook meme that I decided I'd put twice the effort into it. So here goes:
1) I don't remember what my earliest memory is.
2) I didn't get off the bus after my first day of kindergarten. I thought the bus driver would drop me off in front of my house. When I was the last kid left on the bus, he had to take me back to the corner where I was supposed to get off, and my mother was still patiently waiting for the bus to come back.
3) I don't think my mom was too worried; she saw me wave to her when I didn't get off the bus the first time.
4) I moved halfway through kindergarten. At my new school, I spent half of my time in a first-grade classroom. When I started first grade, I spent half the day in a second-grade classroom for about a month. Then it was decided to just keep me in second-grade all day.
5) As a result, I graduated from high school before I could drive (3 days shy of my 17th birthday), and from college before I could buy alcohol (13 days shy of my 21st birthday).
6) Also as a result, I lucked out in fourth grade, when our tiny school became so crowded that it was decided that fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-graders would only go to school for four hours a day, in alternate shifts. That's when I became a "latchkey kid". I did fine; I still think that eight-year-olds are perfectly capable of being left home alone.
7) And while all my classmates are turning 40 this year, I'm not!
8) I wasn't one of the "popular" kids, but I wasn't unpopular, either. I think I was well-liked.
9) I never went through a "girls are icky" phase. I wasn't shy around girls, but I was painfully shy about asking them out. My list of unrequited crushes is painfully long. I went to every junior high school dance, and spent nearly every minute with my back against the wall mustering up the courage to ask some girl to dance, but only ever mustered up the courage once. I think I was too nervous to say anything to her while we danced, and after we danced, too.
10) As far back as I can remember, my younger brother has been as big or bigger than me. I got used to being mistaken for the younger brother myself, though I never much liked it. The only other person I know who had a bigger younger brother growing up is Chris on the T.V. show "Everybody Hates Chris". I feel for him.
11) I get along with my brother - and my parents and in-laws - just fine.
12) I wish my parents hadn't moved to Florida.
13) I like having a very small family. Less drama.
14) I hate bananas. The smell and the taste disgust me. It's probably the only "normal" food I can't abide. (Is Roquefort cheese a "normal" food? I can't abide that, either.)
15) I'm not a very picky eater otherwise. I feel sad for people who are picky eaters. There's too much good food out there that needs trying.
16) I was definitely not good in sports in school, but at various times I was on soccer, baseball, volleyball, and track teams. Track was my best sport; I managed to get a varsity letter in it. I probably could have been even better if I weren't so lazy (see #34 and #35).
17) I got back into running in my 30s. 4-mile to 10K are my favorite distances. I've done one half-marathon, and even though I had a decent time (1:40) and I felt good afterward, I don't quite feel the need to do a full marathon.
18) The only class I got an A+ in in college was Statistics. I don't think you need to know how many B-s and Cs I got.
19) I did get straight As in grad school. I understood the subjects better the second time around. Plus there were fewer distractions.
20) I met Sue in college; I knew pretty soon after meeting her that she was the one I was going to marry. It took a few months for me to convince her of that, though.
21) Sue and I did not live together before getting married. I think we're the only ones. We never even lived in the same state between my graduation from college and our wedding five years later.
22) I've never once tried an illegal drug. I once took a puff of a friend's (tobacco) cigarette as a lark. But I do like my alcohol.
23) I still haven't been to all 50 states. I'm missing Alaska, Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and North Dakota.
24) I don't understand tattoos. Nor do I like them.
25) I'd go back to any part of my life and live it over again. There are some things I'd want to do differently, but it wouldn't be so bad if it were exactly the same.
26) Being a father is much easier than I expected it to be. Perhaps it's because we have a very easy baby. Perhaps that's because we're such good parents.
27) But as much as I love Violet, I don't regret not having a baby sooner.
28) I don't dislike cats and dogs, but I don't want any in my house. If Violet ever wants a pet - or a tattoo - then too bad for her.
29) I wish I were better at foreign languages. I'd love to be fluent in Spanish and French, but that's not going to happen unless I live in a Spanish-speaking or French-speaking city for a year.
30) I don't expect to ever live anywhere but New York, though.
31) If I were to move from New York, I'd miss my friends. But we could still keep in touch on Facebook. What I'd really miss is all the amazing food. You can't Facebook a saag gosht.
32) There are far too many places in the world I haven't been, but so far I'd say the most beautiful city in the world is Venice; my favorite building is the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone Park; the most breathtaking scenery I've seen is driving north from Jackson Hole, Wyoming into the Grand Tetons; and the best wildlife experience is watching the penguins come home for the night in Wilson's Prom, Australia.
33) I'm a big Peanuts fan. I'm thrilled that they're reprinting every single comic in 25 nice hardcover volumes. I'm going to buy them all in English and in French. And in Spanish, too, if it ever comes out in Spanish.
34) I took piano lessons from when I was 6 to when I was about 13. Then I played piano (and saxophone) for our high school's jazz band. You'd think I'd be better at playing the piano than I am, but I'm too lazy to practice hard enough.
35) I've always been kind of lazy and kind of a procrastinator. It's taken me weeks to get around to making this list.
36) I'm not great at remembering names and faces, probably because I have way too much of my brain given over to remembering song lyrics.
37) My favorite ice cream - the perfect ice cream - is Breyer's vanilla.
38) I'm glad I've taken so many photos over the years; there's so much I would have forgotten if I hadn't. Sometimes I wish I had taken even more photos. I'm making up for lost time now.
39) I like when people leave comments on my photos up on Flickr. Hint, hint.
40) I'd like to write a book someday, but so does everyone.
41) Everyone also wants to be in a rock band, too. I was in one. We played at friends' houses, and a bar once, but it was too hard to keep it up while we all went off to college.
42) Sadly, my chosen career has far fewer groupies. But I love that I can work from home.
43) I am a terrible drawer (as in someone who draws, not as in something that holds silverware. I guess I'm okay at holding silverware.)
44) I am an inveterate pack-rat. I save way too many things that probably don't need saving.
45) I think I'm an okay singer, but I could be wrong. I know I'm not the next American Idol.
46) I don't like my speaking voice. I cringe when I hear recordings of it.
47) I know I've been very fortunate in life. I also believe that one does make one's own luck, or at least a good part of it.
48) I grew up near the beach and I love the beach to this day. I'd go every summer weekend if I could.
49) And I'd go skiing every winter weekend if I could. I learned to ski while I was in grad school, and I immediately regretted not learning when I was younger. That will be one of the things I'd change when I go back and live my life again.
50) I'd also ask more girls to dance.
Tags: random
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07:10 pm
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I've Wasted Half My Life!
August 6, 2008, seven in the evening, work's done, I'm feeding the baby and relaxing at home with "The Wizard Of Evergreen Terrace", a rare episode of the Simpsons I don't remember much about....
Homer is driving, listening to the inane DJs on KBBL:
DJ: Okay, here's another News Flush! [toilet flush sound] Doctors say the life expectancy of the average man is now seventy-six point two years!
Homer: [gasps and spins his car out across the highway ] Seventy-six point two? But I'm already thirty-eight point one! I've wasted half my life!
This sends Homer into a deep depression that provides the impetus for the episode's plot. And it kind of depressed me, too, for I calculated that on that day I was 38 years and 43 days old. Which rounds to... thirty-eight point one.
I did not need to know that I am as old as Homer Simpson.
(Later in the episode, Marge reminds Homer that he's actually 39. Which sent him moaning into a fetal position, yet cheered me slightly. Only slightly. I can't shake the feeling that I've wasted half my life watching Simpsons reruns.)
Tags: random
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10:14 am
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Awards
I've never entered a photo contest, but if I were to enter one, this wouldn't be it...
(PS - More photos from our walk through Flushing Meadows that day are here.)
Tags: random
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03:41 pm
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Eleven
You think your air conditioner is powerful? Ours goes to eleven...
Tags: random
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05:24 pm
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Backsplash
Manhattan, April 10, 2007 - Going to a hip Midtown sushi joint and discovering that they used the same backsplash tile as we did in our kitchen kind of makes me happy. Now if only we had thought to put in a sushi bar...
(The sushi was good, too, as was the company. We were having dinner with an out-of-town friend of ours whom we hadn't seen in over two years, though none of us could believe it was that long. How does it get to be that long?)
Tags: random
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02:33 pm
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Cupcake Bowl XLI
Forest Hills, Queens, February 4, 2007 - Cupcakes take longer to make than they should. Or maybe I haven't made them enough to have become efficient. In fact, I can't recall that I've ever baked anything in my life ever, aside from those refrigerated cookie tubes that one just slices and puts on a baking tray.
Well, the cupcakes came out deliciously, if I do say so myself. I made the cupcakes and ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) susanofacadia made the icing - all entirely from scratch. Decorated with appropriately-colored sprinkles and topped with the appropriate mascot (Bears or Colts), they were the perfect food to bring to a Super Bowl XLI party (with sbtorpey, oddthink, and fuzzio, among other friends who don't have LiveJournal aliases yet...)
Even though the cupcakes were handmade, it was the sprinkles that took the biggest chunk of effort. We didn't have time to find separately colored ones, so we bought red, white, and blue rainbow sprinkles, and hand-separated them. Which is as much of a pain in the ass as it sounds.
The toppers and cupcake papers were bought at Pattycakes, a fantastic (and cramped) cake and candy supply store in Corona, Queens. They have everything one needs to make cakes except for the actual food ingredients. Unfortunately, the teddy bears for Chicago and the race cars for Indianapolis are practically invisible against the chocolate cake.
But the cupcakes were greatly appreciated anyway. I have six left, if anybody wants any (but act now, because they're going quickly...)
(More cupcake pictures here)
Tags: cupcakes, random
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08:01 pm
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I'm So Lame
Forest Hills, Queens, July 30, 2006 - Regular readers of this blog might remember that I recently started running again after a few months recovery from tendonitis. And it felt good. I was finally healthy again. Thanks to lots of stretching and weight training, the past couple of weeks have finally been pain-free. I was so excited, I even ran through the Paris heat (which was awesome - I did about a three-mile loop from the Rond Point des Champs Elysées through the Jardin des Tuileries to the Louvre and back along the Seine. I would have gone the extra mile to the Eiffel Tower and back, but it was indeed quite hot. And you know, being such a nice park to jog in, it was most bizarre that I saw only one other fellow jogger. On a warm summer day, I pass at least a dozen or two in the parks here in Queens, and I'd probably pass hundreds in Central Park. Do Parisians not jog? Or do they not jog when it's that hot? Or do they just jog elsewhere? I hope I wasn't committing a faux pas by jogging in the wrong park. karinebou, please advise...)
Where was I? Oh, yeah. So I'm feeling good. Perhaps in a few more weeks I'll be running as well as I did last summer. I was even toying (very gingerly) with the idea of running the Boston Marathon in April (as I found out that Sue can get me an entry through her work).
So of course this weekend I break my toe.
I wish I had a great story, but nope, I went running, and came back in one piece, but needing a shower... Then I just cracked my left pinky toe on the edge of the tub as I was stepping into it. How lame is that? It was such a mild tap, I thought I had just stubbed it, no big deal. But that evening, seeing that the pain hadn't gone away, and then actually seeing how swollen and bruised it was, I figured I needed a second opinion.
My doctor told me it certainly looked broken, but then the X-ray came back negative, about which she basically said she didn't believe the X-ray, no way that's not broken. So it'd be more accurate to say I might have broken my toe. Either way, there's not much that can be done about it; I just have to tape my little toe to the toe next to it for at least the next three weeks, and it should heal fine on its own. I just hobble around best I can in the meantime. No running, of course.
(So why this photo? It has nothing at all to do with my toe. Well, you didn't want to see my swollen, discolored toe, did you? This picture is much happier. I took it while playing mini-golf at Disney World last Thanksgiving. I don't remember what was being advertised, but I liked the image of Heaven smiling down upon me. Didn't do much for my golf game, unfortunately.)
Tags: france, orlando, random, running
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10:34 pm
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A Sign Of The Covenant
Westbury, Long Island, May 19, 2006 - There are no Wal-Marts in NYC, and there are only a few on Long Island, so we don't shop there much. But maybe this is a sign that we should...
Tags: random
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08:04 am
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It's Easy To Forget New York City Has Beaches
The F Train, Queens, September 10, 2005 - I don't even remember where I was going that Saturday and why I was by myself, but I can remember that this woman got on at the same stop that I did in Queens, sat across from me, immediately pulled out a towel, and went to sleep. She was clearly dressed for the beach, so I figured she was going to Coney Island, which is about an hour and a half ride to the end of the line. Therefore she could sleep soundly if she so desired. But she got off at West 4th Street in the Village. And I'll never know why...
(I presume she was meeting a friend, but it's more fun to think of it as a big mystery...)
Tags: newyorkcity, random
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09:18 am
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Is That A Building?
Plainview, Long Island, October 17, 2005 -
Move along, nothing to see here...
Tags: random
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