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>Just say no to Madison Square Garden

Filed under: Uncategorized
November 13, 2010

>My friend called me to tell me his daughter had given him tickets to Dave Matthews Band at Madison Square Garden, did I want to come with him? So I said yes.

Before I go on, I should tell you I am not a fan of Dave Matthews. In fact I don’t think I have even listened to one song of his. I was just thinking it would be a nice evening out. So this is not a review of the concert. Rather it is a rant against Madison Square Garden.

First of all, the website Madison Square Garden states that it is “The World’s Most Famous Arena” and it is located in Manhattan. Last time I checked, Manhattan is in New York State. As such, it is subject to New York State law, the law that concerns me is “New York State Clean Indoor Air Act”, see the website here. On this website it mentions indoor areas where smoking is prohibited, the exact wording is “The Act states that smoking shall not be permitted and that no person shall smoke in the following indoor areas:”, one of those places is (drumroll please) “All indoor arenas”

In addition to that, on Madison Square Garden’s own website, under “Code of Conduct” it says, and I quote “As required by the City of New York, guests shall not smoke anywhere in our facilities.” and “In compliance with New York City regulations, there is no smoking permitted anywhere in Madison Square Garden. This policy is strictly enforced. Violation of this regulation is grounds for ejection. Furthermore, all exits are final and MSG does not allow for smoking passes.”

I am here to tell you that this is a lie. Like the cake is a lie. The smoke in our section (cigarette and other stuff) was so thick, the following wasn’t necessary:

Guests are encouraged to report inappropriate or offensive behavior to an Usher, Security Officer or Guest Services Representative.

All one had to do was walk inside the seating area and they would have known. Not only that, when we left, (early because for one thing I couldn’t breathe) there were no Ushers, Security Officers in sight, the only person I saw was a vendor, selling crappy beer.

The reason I’m so pissed off about this, I’ve been to Yankee Stadium, which holds 50,000 people and there is no smoking in Yankee Stadium. Its enforced. So if Yankee Stadium can enforce this policy with a lot more people, why can’t Madison Square Garden? Not only that, but Yankee Stadium gives you a number where you can “Text any concerns you have.” Also, our seats were $75 (granted I didn’t pay for it but still) and we were almost touching the ceiling, so you know the seats lower down cost more, on the floor probably a lot more. You would think at those prices they would hire enough people to enforce the non-smoking policy, or at least have a text system like Yankee Stadium does.

This is the end of my rant. It is also the only time I will be at Madison Square Garden.

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>The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Filed under: Uncategorized
November 11, 2010

>http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/hgI8bta-7aw?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0

A tribute to the 29 men who died November 10, 1975, aboard the Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior.

Lyrics:

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
of the big lake they called “Gitche Gumee”
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
when the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty,
that big ship and true was a bone to be chewed
when the Gales of November came early

The ship was the pride of the American side
coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
with a crew and good captain well seasoned,
concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
when they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ship’s bell rang,
could it be the north wind they’d been feelin’?

The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
and a wave broke over the railing
And ev’ry man knew, as the captain did too
’twas the witch of November come stealin’
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
when the Gales of November came slashin’
When afternoon came it was freezin’ rain
in the face of a hurricane west wind

When suppertime came the old cook came on deck sayin’
“Fellas, it’s too rough t’feed ya”
At seven P.M. a main hatchway caved in; he said,
“Fellas, it’s bin good t’know ya!”
The captain wired in he had water comin’ in
and the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when ‘is lights went outta sight
came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Does any one know where the love of God goes
when the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they’d have made Whitefish Bay
if they’d put fifteen more miles behind ‘er
They might have split up or they might have capsized;
they may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
of the wives and the sons and the daughters

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
in the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man’s dreams;
the islands and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below Lake Ontario
takes in what Lake Erie can send her,
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
with the Gales of November remembered

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,
in the Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral
The church bell chimed ’til it rang twenty-nine times
for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
of the big lake they call “Gitche Gumee”
“Superior,” they said, “never gives up her dead
when the gales of November come early”

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>Branching out

Filed under: Beauty
November 10, 2010

>

Em made her nail appointment for Monday because D left for Florida on Sunday. I left work to meet up with her. On the way to meet her I stopped at Sephora, I got a set of eyeliner pencils in cool colors. After the nail appointment we went down to see Ashley. I took the subway since I was wearing my dress boots and Em walked. I got there before Em and decided to replace on my studs with a ring. I got black gold with cubic zirconium.

After that we went for dinner at a ‘fast food pasta place’ Hello Pasta. I got gluten-free pasta with sauce with sausage and peas. It was very good. Em says, if she lived near there she would eat there all the time. After dinner we went to another place Em had a groupon for called Flute. Read my review here. Then we headed back to Grand Central Terminal.

My feet hurt so bad, I am wearing my sneakers today and feet still hurt.

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>We have hoodlums

Filed under: Uncategorized
November 4, 2010

>in our neighborhood. I don’t think I mentioned the dead skunk in the van. As bad as you are imagining it, it was worse.

Earlier this week, D mentioned when he got in the car the low tire pressure alarm went off. When he checked the tires, they were all down to 20 psi. No way that just happened, someone let the air out.

I told Stitch to check the air pressure in my car, he said “I am very sensitive and I would have noticed if the tires were low.” So he hasn’t done it. I would have checked it Wednesday, but I was barely able to get out of bed. So I will check it Saturday and if the tires are low, somebody is getting Gibbs slapped.

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>Weight watchers progress

Filed under: Uncategorized — 2 Comments
October 30, 2010

>Perhaps I should have said, non-progress since I am up 1.8 pounds. Of course I have not been eating right, had a couple of parties I went to. Today I start being careful again and hopefully next week will be better.

Also, there are some other things going on that have affected my weight. They are also temporary.

Exercise, more water and being more aware of what I am eating will do the trick.

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>A cover-up

Filed under: Beauty
October 29, 2010

>The last place I went to get my hair dyed used the wrong stuff. They put temporary dye on my hair. Hello, I am covering gray hair I need the permanent dye. This happened three times so I said, No More. Another thing that happened was I would tell them, Please be careful, I just got my ears pierced. The stylist would promise, then proceed to drag the towel over my ears. OWWIE!

So I started doing it myself. Again. It was o.k. for a while, then I got tired of the mess, and having to search the store for my color and panicking when I couldn’t find it and getting dye in my eyes and on my ears and neck and so I started searching for a place to get it done.

The first place I went was on 5th Avenue. One of those places were the guys hand out flyers on the street. I decided to get a hair cut and see how I liked it. I didn’t. My roots started to get long and so I colored my hair myself again.

Last Wednesday I was at the mall with Gwen, I checked out the two hair places, asking for prices on hair coloring. I decided I would try out Unisex Hair Palace. So tonight after work I went up there. After finding out what I wanted (the roots covered) Lynne (?) took me back. She did a fabulous job. Color is great, she dried it to perfection, and without my saying anything, she was very careful working around my ears. She did hurt them a little bit, but there was no way she could avoid it.

She also explained that if I had wanted a different color, there would not have been enough time to do a color change before they closed. Since I was keeping it the same color it wasn’t a problem. Another thing I liked was at this place the haircut was included, I had to pay extra because my hair is long, but I have to pay extra every where I go.

Now my hair is beautiful, and I didn’t have to do it!

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Music and a Movie

Filed under: Family N Friends, Manhattan
October 27, 2010

October was kind of a busy month. Of course since the Yankees are not playing in the World Series, I will be able to pay more attention to this blog. To read about what’s being going on with me and the Yankees, check out my other blog: The Foxx Loves the Yankees

Em, Tigger, Fred and I went to see Lifehouse at The Roseland Ballroom. It was standing room only, which I had never been too. Here is how it works. You have to get there about a zillion hours before the doors open and stand in line. Then you come in and find a place to stand for the concert. I noticed that there were benches built along the wall, so Em and I went and secured a seat. We took turns getting drinks and going to the bathroom. The bathroom was pretty incredible, there was the door in, then a room to the left with stalls and a room to the right with couches, tables and mirrors. When I told Em, she said, “This place used to be a disco, they needed a place to snort their cocaine.” I believed her since the room was not lighted enough to put on makeup. The music was great, bottle of water was $3. There was a couple standing in front of us that should have gotten a room. Really.

The other thing we did was go to see the movie The Social Network. I took the boys and Em, D and Gwen went to see Secretariat. After about a minute and a half, I leaned over to Tigger, he whispered to me, “This guy is a a**hole.” I replied, “No he has aspergers syndrome.” Total social awkwardness, and when he was a billionaire and could buy anything he wanted, he spent all his time programing and updating the Facebook site. I thought The Social Network was good enough to see again, in fact I might go see it with Em next weekend. The boys said, “It was o.k.”.

So now I am trying to adjust to life without baseball, and back to blogging here and on my book review blog.

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>Sometimes

Filed under: Weather

>It seems like he drives fast, and it doesn’t matter. Sometimes slow and it doesn’t matter. I am sure, knowing him, he aways drives exactly the same, except for mornings like today when it’s pouring down rain.

It must be me, my own sense of urgency that changes my perception of the drive to the train station.

— Sent from my Palm Pre


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>Minute by minute

Filed under: Uncategorized
October 17, 2010

>The Beacon train station is the second stop on the Hudson Line. That is if you are coming from Poughkeepsie and heading to NYC. The train is not usually late and that leaves very little wiggle room for catching the train. Sometimes it does literally come down to the minutes. Take this week for example.

Wednesday I needed to get to work early. Of course I had trouble getting up in the morning. I left for the train with less then 10 minutes to get there. I made it, just made it and every time I take this train I am surprised by how crowded it is. I keep thinking, “It’s so early, no one will be on the train ….” Back to my original thought, if I can find it again.

On Thursday I had the same amount of time to catch the train. Thursday the train was a minute early. Just a minute, one lousy minute and I missed the train, had to take the next train, an express train. Then when I left work I missed the subway by a minute, just one little minute. Then next train didn’t come for another 10 minutes and it was crowded! I had to take it since I was trying to catch the early train out of GCT. I didn’t make it.

There wouldn’t be a problem of course, if I hadn’t measured the time, down to the minute that it takes to get from my door to the train station. Then I wouldn’t be tempted to push the envelope as they say.

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>Demon possessed phone

Filed under: Uncategorized
October 8, 2010

>Last night I went to meet some friends to watch the Yankee game. I ended up on a late train coming home. My phone battery ran out of power so I switched batteries. That’s when the trouble began.

The phone turned on, then shut down. I pressed the power button and it powered up. Then shut down, immediately, just like the first time. I was starting to get worried, and pressed the power button again. Same result, I took the battery out and looked at it. Then I looked at the place in the phone where the battery goes. I put the battery back in and powered up the phone. This time it worked.

When I got in the car I told Tigger about it. He said either my phone hates me or it was momentarily possessed by demons. He recommended I buy demon repellent. I googled demon repellent.

There is no demon repellent designed specifically for phones. Holy water won’t work and I don’t know what salt or rosemary would do to my phone.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

— Sent from my Palm Pre

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