So I officially caught the apnea. I went in for another test where they hook up a positive pressure deal on my nose, to see if it would help, which it did. Normally, the protocol is to use this face mask, when you sleep, for the rest of your life! I spoke with the Doctor about this, and he thought my apnea was mild enough, that if I lost the weight I was talking about losing, it might go away on its own. In the mean time, the face mask will make it easier to lose weight by removing whatever stresses the apnea is loading on. So now I have to sleep with a face mask until I lose 50 more pounds. I already lost about 20, so I’m on a roll. Maybe it won’t be for too long. If this doesn’t solve the problem, we have to find another solution, because wearing a face mask for the rest of my life would totally suck.

Film Center opened, and Ace was still here… unfortunately. Everything was remodeled and the staff has completely changed. Julie is off doing her school thing, and Ali is teaching swimming or something like that. A big group of us walked in on the first night they were open, and it was a bit of a let down. They were playing depressing Italian music, they had colored florescent lights inside, and just a general funk about the place. They did keep the original bar, but other than that, it was unrecognizable. I will go back at some point to try the food, but for now, it doesn’t look good. I might just need time to ease into change, who knows. Needless to say, we deflected Ace from going to Film Center. Gotta protect the young-ins. We, instead, went to a different place on 10^th. Has a cool name, “Perdition”, it is the corner bar of someone in the group we were with. It was very cool, and had the same vibe as Old Film Center. We will definitely have to check it out again.

Ace had his 21st birthday yesterday. The plan was originally to go to Film Center, where he had been sneaking in for the whole summer, and celebrate there. Unfortunately Film Center is still remodeling, and foiled the master plan. They have been remodeling for 3 months now! I hope they have enough cash to see them through the construction. We, instead, did some bar hopping down 9th Ave.
We started at Vynl, right around the corner, for a pre-dinner drink. Julie was there and gave both of us a birthday shot. Evil, evil Julie. I normally do not take shots, but if I ever were to, the first drink of the night would be best, since that is when I am the least queasy. She gave us a “shot” of Jack, but it was more like a triple. It took me 3 big gulps to finish the “shot”. I knew at this point, in my infinite wisdom, the night would not end pleasantly.
Humby showed up and we had another drink with Julie, then moved across the street to Snug for mini-burgers. The bartender was a cute Asian girl, who I hadn’t seen before. Ace was convinced she was Korean, but she sounded Chinese to me. We started a guessing game with her. I was right about her being Chinese. We then tried to figure out what part of China she was from. I was right again when I said Canton. She said she’s actually from Hong Kong, but Canton seemed more “educated” for some reason. Hong Kong would have been more specific, so I don’t know what that meant.
Next stop, The Irish Rogue. At this point, I was out for the count. I just drank water for the rest of the night. Adam and Laura showed up. Since they just started I was the wuss for the night. I remember getting up and going to the bathroom once. Once in there, I thought that it was interesting that they remodeled it, but it didn’t look brand new. Ace was waiting outside and apparently saw me go into the women’s bathroom! I even heard a flush when I was in there, ha-ha. That could have ended much more embarrassingly.
Ace and company were doing all sorts of shots, and I just watched queasily from the sidelines. Ace had his shot of Jäger, as is required of all Texans on their 21st birthday. I have no idea about the other shots they had, but what surprised me, is Humby was keeping up with all of them! I never though I’d see Humby taking shot after shot like that. Crazy!
Adam said he had to “work” or some such the next morning, so we called it a night at about 1:30. Ace wanted to hit another bar, but he later thanked us for not letting him. Got home after a slice of pizza. Humby immediately hit the sack, and Ace hung out near the toilet. My favorite quote of the night… Between convulsions he said, “In a way, I’m never drinking again….but in another way…I totally am!”

A friend of mine, Laura, was on QVC today as a “product expert” for some high tech oven gloves. She needed props to demonstrate how much heat the gloves can handle, so she came over to look through my stuff. She needed stuff that looked like it would burn a hole through your hand.

My trusty Lodge 12” cast iron skillet, Calphalon round griddle, and Craftsman infrared thermometer all made it on the show. The idea was to heat these up to glowing red, show it with the thermometer, then pick up the pans and handle them as if they were cool. She put some food in the skillet and got it boiling, picked it up and set it in the host’s hands. She also pulled out some bread from a cast iron loaf pan, and handled it as if it was cool as well. They were going to do more demonstrations, but the gloves sold out in 3 minutes, so they cut her off. Oh well, I guess that’s the point, but I wish they would have shown my stuff a bit more!

I was raised with the idea that the expensive brand name stuff was only more expensive because of the name. But the quality of those brand names weren’t supposed to be anything special.

Several years ago, I decided that I hated jeans. They were always too thick, rigid, and just all-around uncomfortable. I got rid of all my jeans except for one flannel-lined pair that were too small for me. So every time I thought about trying jeans again, this was the pair I tried. This kept the hatred of jeans alive, being too hot and tight. I was talking about this to a friend, and she told me to try “Seven” jeans. The actual name was “7 for all mankind”. It sounded kind of hippie to me. I was in TX and asked another friend, Daniel, about it. We went to the Nordstrom to check them out. 200 bucks for jeans! Hell no! I walked out and didn’t think about it again. Daniel looked online for deals, and found some discounted for 160 bucks on the nordstrom.com site. That’s still crazy! Talked to a few more women to get opinions, and they all say “Seven” ever single time. When I get back into town, I head out to Century 21 to try a pair on. Century 21, by the way, is one of the best clothing stores in NYC. If you are ever here, visit it. It’s right next to the World Trade Center site. So I admit, I tried on the jeans solely for the name. But when I tried them on… there was no turning back. They just fit! I was living a lie! They felt like sweat pants, only not warm, and they look hell of a lot better! The Century 21 price for these was $109. I know that’s still a lot of money, but it felt cheap to me considering the prices I had seen up to that point. I’ve also paid that much for nice dress pants, so I wasn’t too horrified. Since then, I’ve been wearing these pretty much every day that they aren’t being washed. I really should get another pair, but that’ll have to wait until I get employed again.

The next incident involves sunglasses. My interest in this brand-name thing was piqued now, but I knew nothing about fashion or brand names. I do have friends who do though, so I ask around about sunglasses. Prada, Prada, Prada. I think there was a movie that came out that had this in the title, so hopefully it’s not just a temporary thing. When I was in Vegas I went to the Prada store in the Bellagio and started trying on all the glasses. I was there for a while, not finding anything that fit me right. The pair I had at the time fit ok, except they would slide if I sweat at all. I was starting to thing the whole Prada thing wasn’t for me, and then… it happened again. I found a pair that just fit. I’m convinced now that when buying things, there is that little “This just fits” moment that happens when you find something you should get. These glasses were $265 dollars though, and it was the first store that I looked at, so I decided not to get them. Even though I had $2500 in my pocket from the poker tables! I thought the store in NYC would be a better place to buy these if I hadn’t found a better pair by then. When I got back to NYC, the Prada store had completely different models. None of them “fit”. The lady there told me I should have just bought them when I had the chance, because the lines are constantly changing. I was right though, the glasses were cheaper in NYC, but still over $200. She said to try back another week, they should have different stuff. At some point in the next few days I passed by a Sunglass Hut in a mall. I tried a pair on, and the first pair I reached for was the same one I tried in Vegas, by coincidence. They just “fit” again. They were more expensive than the Prada in the city though, so I walked out. The lady who told me to “just buy it when I had the chance” played in my head, so I did a 180 and bought them. So now I’m sporting Prada sunglasses and 7 jeans. Totally a brand whore, huh?

And yes, that’s a picture of my butt!

Things have calmed down and it’s time to look for another job. I’ve been going to the gym every day, so I’ll at least have something to feel good about, even if it takes a while to find a job. I’ve also started playing the guitar a little bit more. I compiled a list of all the songs I used to play in high school, and seeing how much I still remember. It’s surprising how much is still stored in my head. I don’t remember the words, but my fingers seem to remember how to play a lot of these songs. My goal is to learn about 10 songs all the way through. Songs that sound ok with a solo guitar and easy to play. Like maybe a little GNR Patience, Poison - Every Rose, songs like that. There is one song that I always wanted to learn in high school, and I’ve discovered that it is pretty easy. Unfortunately, no one up here will know what the hell I’m singing, since it’s in Spanish. It’s a song from Mana called “Vivir Sin Aire”. If you were a high school girl growing up near the border 10 years ago, and a guy played that song for you…. Anyway, it’s a song I’ve always wanted to learn, and that’s the immediate guitar goal.

So tonight, on my way to a restaurant, I was standing too close to a corner with a large puddle in front of it. A cab came speeding by and i got caught in the surfing-quality wave that resulted. I was facing the other way, and the back of my pants looked like I sat in a puddle. The coverage was quite spectacular. And yes, there was an audience, but they didn’t laugh, thankfully. It was like something from a movie. It happened in slow motion. I didn’t see the wave, but as soon as I heard the splash, I saw the faces of my audience slowly fall in sympathy. I just stood there for 10 seconds nodding my head with a “of-course” look on my face. Made some funny comments to the audience, then headed back home. I told Humby and then finally got the laugh that it deserved! We took a picture to preserve this for all history! The water in the puddle wasn’t exactly Fiji, so I took another shower and headed out again. I did get nervous as I approached the corner, but it was a one-time incident. Hopefully it won’t happen again…