Picture Perfect

OK, my bad for being away for a bit. Starting a new job and training can be quite a bit. Good news is that I got a camera phone this week (welcome to 2003 Brian) and I also changed my plan on my cell phone to unlimited outgoing minutes and unlimited texting (like I really needed either). So, onto photos of some of the hijink I've been up to!

The image above is the front door of my building. I like it quite a bit, it's really clean and just great. I'm liking it here. Next up is my room. Withouth further ado, here it is:

It's in the photo below. Notice the bed not made. I'm not ashamed of that seeing as I'm not out to impress anyone, and I'll just sleep in it again. I kid of course...just wanted to show you where I've been staying.

The above image is Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. It's kind of a landmark. As I said in one of my earlier posts, I live in Washington Heights. I'll get some more pictures posted soon. If my parents or my brother is reading this post, the best way to describe the area around where I live is compareable to Sommerville, NJ. It reminds me of that area quite a bit (a neighboring town when we were living in Bridgewater, NJ). If you're one of my California friends, I'd compare it to West LA (think about the UCLA campus, and that's kind of what my neighborhood looks like...well, for a 3 block radius). Atlanta folks, think a more urbanized area of Dunwoody. Where I live is a real up and coming area, so I'm glad I got such a good deal.

The above photo is the subway station I go to everyday. You can sort of see three dots on the sign (2 blue and 1 red). These dots indicate which trains come to this station. The 2 blue dots are the A and the C (the A runs express during the week, and the C runs Local on the A line, which means it hits every stop). The 1 runs along a parallel track and makes a few different stops. I'm not a fan of the 1 line, as it takes forever to get anywhere, and you have to take an elevator to get to the tracks. It's kind of a pain. The next picture is an approaching C train. I don't ride that one too much, but I thought it'd be cool to have a shot of that.

That's a picture of me riding the aforementioned 1 train that I didn't like. I wanted to check out the Statue of Liberty, and from my neck of the woods, I need to take the 1 to the South Ferry Station. I won't bore you with the short cut I took (yes, it involved an express train and a transfer). I sent this picture to my friend Kelly Coker because she got a new phone and wanted a picture of me. She didn't have my picture of me from Times Square, and my hair is pretty rocking in the one. An iPod is a must in Manhattan by the way. You're probably wondering what that picture is next to me. That's a Scientology auditing going on. Let me further explain. That's a picture of a "Free" Scientology auditing taking place in a subway station. I know when I'm looking for purpose and meaning in life, the first place I look is a local subway staion.

"Oh man, I'm running late for that appointment, what am I going to do?"

"Excuse me sir, are you under stress?"

"Why yes, yes I am! How did you know?! That's amazing, it's like you've known me my whole life!"

You have no idea how bad I wanted to go over there and get audited. I'm not into making fun of people for their beliefs, but in this case it's OK because...well, come on. I wanted to look at the guy and give him the horns and say "Hail Xenu!" Moral of the story, you'll see just about anything in a subway station. That and homeless people expect you to give you money; they don't really ask, they either hold out their hand or rudely shake thier change cup at you. I've already covered giving them money, so let's move on.

That's Clinton Castle. When you take a ferry to Ellis Island, you have to purchase your tickets here. It was also built as a fort in during the War of 1812. Staying very touristy, that's Times Square next. It's not where New Yorkers go to party. Well, it is if by New Yorker, you mean tourist, then yes, that's where all the New Yorkers go.

The above image is Battery Park. We don't have a lot of greenery in Manhattan, but the parks we do have are pretty cool. The next photo is Trump International Tower. It's by 59th as well. Thought it'd be cool to include that.

That funky looking thing there? Oh, that's the statue of Christopher Columbus, or "Christobel Colon" if you are a fan of "1492." It's a landmark known as Columbus Circle (it's a 59th St.), and it marks the southwest corner of the park. There's a traffic circle right there, and it looks like something in Paris (as far as traffic goes). Now next to Columbus Circle, that's a shot of Central Park (from across 59th). It was getting kind of dark (as it does rather quickly here), so I got the best shot I could. It's a camera phone, not the best quality, but you can kind of get the idea of where I am.

All over the place here. This is a really cool building I saw downtown. It's right down by the South Ferry station (where you'd get off to go see the Statue of Liberty).

That's someone dressed as the Statue of Liberty. I'm starting to see a theme here. That was in Times Square. You'll see just about anything in Times Square (even saw the Naked Cowboy the

other day).

I shouldn't have to explain the above, but the Late Show is around 55th St. I had some spaghetti at Angelo's next store tonight. Not bad. The photo to the right of Late Show is just down the street where I'll be earning a buck while I'm working my way into the New York acting scene. It's a Pan-Asian restaurant called Ruby Foo's, and it's pretty good. It's right at50th and Broadway, so they stay pretty busy.

I'll keep adding more photos. And I'll try to update a bit more regularly. Later!

Training Day

Sorry for the blogless Sunday. We did ended up finding Lenny's Pizza, it's right in the heart of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn (home of Stallion). You basically take the D train to 20th Ave. and it's right there. It's a bit of a landmark, since it was the pizza place in "Saturday Night Fever." You know the scene at the beginning of the movie where Travolta's walking with the paint cans? That's 86th St. Pizza was great. We had some Cold Stone afterwards, then I bought a shirth for work off 34th St. Anyway, onto today.

So today was my firts day of training at Ruby Foo's. This place stays really busy. Their menu has a lot of ingredients, and it's really extensive. Everyone keeps talking about how no one passes the final exam on their first try, but I think they are trying to weed out people who don't want to work there. One of the trainers asked if anyone was an actor, but I've been very careful who I tell I'm an actor. At this juncture, I feel that it's only my business. I know what I'm here to do.

They threw a lot at us today, and I'm going to start studying here in a bit. So, we'll keep it short and sweet today. Anyway, I'll post more soon!

Mystic Pizza

OK, today is the text book definition of a doozy, and by textbook, I mean my own. Before we dive in, a couple of things. A big thanks to Adam and Tatom for being my first two pieces of mail in New York. I received two very nice cards, and they were very thoughtful. Also, I stand corrected on my assessment of the migration patterns of black bears, as they can can be found as far south as Mexico (Thanks to Adam, the official "Life of Brian" fact checker).

OK, onto today. Got started kind of late, but I decided to go exploring once again. I talked to my friend Jason Guiliano (who we call "Stallion," you'll have to meet him to know why...incidentaly, I do a nice Jason impressonation as a cat, but we're not here to talk about which of my friends I can impersonate), and he told me to check out Lenny's Pizza in Brooklyn, at 86th St. and 22nd Ave. So I check out my subway map and see that the A train is running to Brooklyn. Initially, I thought I should take the A to the L to the F, but the L wasn't running, and I saw the A goes all the way to 88th street. Great, I think, 2 blocks away, I'll have some good pizza, scope out Brooklyn, this will be fun. Oh, you should realize I got off the A twice by accident, but moving forward (you should expect me to screw up here and there). I get off the train at 88th, and prepare to set out for my destination. OK, here's 88th, and this street looks like...102nd Ave. OK, a tad further out then I had planned. Just need to walk about 80 blocks (which I learned and was confirmed by Stallion via voicemail that 20 blockes equal a mile...you do the math). OK, so I set out (FYI, Chuck Taylor All-Stars are not the shoes you want to hike 4 miles in). So I start walking, hit a few dead ends, OK there's Forrest Park, no clue where I am, there's the Jackie Robinson Parkway, all right, a highway, haven't seen one fo those in a while. I keep walking. Hmmmm Queens Blvd. Jackson Heights, 44th Ave., OK we're getting warmer. I finally get to 86th St. and 24th. Ave., and it's a total residential area. I call Stallion to find out where this place is, and I find out that I'm in Queens. Queens is one of the 5 boroughs of New York, and it's north of Brooklyn, and I walked from 88th Street near Rockaway Blvd. to almost LaGuardia airport!! I stopped at a Citgo, and asked for directions back to Manhattan, and of course the guy didn't know. So I asked how I can get to a train station, and he pointed me to a Q bus (Q buses are for Queens, M buses are for Manhattan, and Bx buses are for the Bronx), and to take it to Roosevelt station. Did that, hopped on an E train (which ran express to Times Square and I met this woman from Brazil who missed her flight to Philadelphia and had to catch a bus from Times Square to Philadelphia. She was asking me for directions, and I kind of explained to her where to go. OK, I'm tired and sore, so I hope y'all enjoyed today's shennanigans.

Garden State

If you'll remember back to last week, I set out to update my drivers license, only to be told by the NYC DMV that I needed to prove "proof of birth." Since I was born in New Jersey, I hoped a trian to Trenton today. Here's why I went in person. You can have it mailed to you, but you have to fax them proof of identity, and it costs $25 plus a shipping cost of $27, and you get it in 15 to 19 days (that's express...never has anything taken 2 weeks and been called "express," but I digress). It cost $21.50 to take a round trip to Trenton to pick it up in person, and the Department of Vital Records is 3 blocks from the train station. Easy decision for me. So I hop the train, and make my way to the Garden State, the place where I was born, New Jersey. The first stop out of New York is Newark, and all though Newark is very close to New York, it feels so far. You really can't even see the city. We went through a bunch of stops, New Brunswick (where I was born) being one of them. About an hour and a half after I left, I arrived in Trenton, NJ. Got to the place, filled out the paperwork, paid my money, made some NASCAR small talk with the girl behind the desk, and boom, done. The whole process in Trenton took less than 5 minutes (it took a while to get there, and it took a bit to walk over to the place, but the actual time at the Department of Vitals was litterally in and out). So I headed back to the train station to head back to New York. Riding through Jersey is the strangest thing. Geographicallly, I'm about 20-30 miles outside of New York (if you're from GA and never been to New York and don't remember, think Alpharetta or Lawrenceville to Atlanta). Got back on the train, and headed back to the city determined to update my license and piss off the DMV at the same time by walking in 5 minutes berfore they close. Alas, they closed at 4:00 pm, and I arrived at 4:40. Guess it'll have to wait until Tuesday to do that (since Monday I start at my new job...for more information on the job, see the blog "Waiting"). So who knows what shennanigans I'll get into with the DMV. That blog will be sure to be a doozy. So, here's to me proving to the state of NY that I was indeed born, and not spawned or hatched like perviously noted. Until next time!

Waiting

I'm in a great mood today, because I found a job! As many of you know, I quit my day job about 2 and a half years ago, so I could act full time. As a way of keeping the cash flow coming in, I went into the food service industry (i.e. "waiter"), and that's what I'll be doing to keep the bills paid until I hear from Lorne Michaels. Abell scored me an application to a Pan-Asian restaurant called Ruby-Foos right in the heart of Times Square. I dropped it off today and they interviewed/quizzed me on different things, and they guy said "well, training starts Monday, you're un-officially hired." He gave me my Monday schedule, and training lasts a week. I'm really happy to have found something. They stay very busy since we're in the theater district, and it seems like a great place to work.

I'm sitting back typing, and I just realized that almost 2 weeks ago, I was getting on a plane to go to this big, strange city, with a few thousand dollars in the bank, no where to live, no job, and a suitcase full of clothes. In that time frame, I've found a place and a job(and once I get my schedule down, I'll be heading over to UCB). I can't thank you all enough for you support and prayers. It means so much to me, and I can't tell you all how much you all mean to me (by you, I mean anyone of my friends, or if you just happen to be reading this). If I can impart any words of wisdom to anyone thinking about making a move to either New York or LA, I'd say it's more important to have a vision of what to accomplish. People throw around a dollar amount to bring, and you should have money saved up. It's more important to know what you want, and stay true to that goal. Anything that will take you off of that focus or goal, forget about. Stay on the path. Also, positive thinking goes along way. My buddy Matt (aka known as "My Matt") and I were headed up to Harrah's about a month ago, and the was telling me about this Tony Robin's book he bought about positive thinking. The basic premise was you can teach yourself to feel better (along with increasing pleasure and decreasing pain). It wasn't about numbing yourself into a false sense of happiness, but when someone asks you "how you doing?" you can respond "I'm great." I also had a trigonometry teacher talk about the same principles. Positive thinking really goes a long way, so if you've had a crumby day or you're not feeling well, the next time someone asks how you're doing, start choosing to feel great, and really mean it. After all, if you can see it, you can do it (I know, kind of a corny line, and I'm not going out that way).

So, how are you today?

42nd Street

Sorry I haven't bloggerd in a few days. I did a bit more job hunting today, and I think I'm getting closer to landing one. I had a long talk with my buddy Jeff Pack about job searches and life in one of the big two markets (he moved to Los Angeles back in January, and he's diving into the restaurant biz for the first time. He'll do great, because he's one of the most focused people I know). Anyway, good talk, and for any of you thinking about making the move to either New York of Los Angeles, remember why you're moving. Obviously the place and the job are important (the simile Pack used was it's like a soldier going into Afghanistan and just shooting ramdomly. Our soldiers don't do that, they set up a base first, which is the stage Pack and I are both in). Anyway, things are moving along nicely, and I'm staying busy.

I've been hitting Times Square a lot lately, since it's pretty busy down that way. It's quite a sight, and I promise to have pictures up soon. Times Square is pretty funny, in that there are all these souvenier shops, a couple of movie theaters, and a bunch of restaurants. From a restaurant stand point, what makes Times Square so unique is that most of the restaurants in Times Square are ones you can find a stones throw from your home. For instance, there's a Friday's, Applebee's, Olvie Garden, and a Sbarro all right there. Now don't get me wrong, you've got some really nice, trendy places (where I've been applying), and then the aforementioned (where I have not been applying). The best part is, you can go to any of these restaurants anywhere in America, but in Times Square you're going to pay twice as much as you would anywhere else for something not very good. They could seriously use a Target or a Wal-Mart down there. My brother made a great poing about Wal-Mart; you can't say "I'm going into Wal-Mart right quick." That's at least a 30 minute journey, between browsing for things you don't need and waiting in line behind about 10 people. It would fit right in in Times Square.

OK, pretty tame past few days. I do need to go down to Trenton, NJ for my official state birth certificate sometime this week (to updated my license for "proof of birth," also, I want to get a passport soon for cruise 2k8). More to come later!

Swingers

I'll get into my day momentarily, but let's recap the evening. I got to hang with my good friend's younger brother Steve Pack (Steve is the younger brother of my buddy Jeff Pack of: http://jeffpacklajournal.blogspot.com fame). Ashley and I ran into Steve after my 10 year reunion, and I'm proud to say that Steve is my new New York buddy. What an awesome guy, and if I may say so, Mr. and Mrs. Pack did an awesome job with their 2 boys. They're so different, yet so the same, they remind me a bit of my brother, Kevin, and myself. Whenever anyone meets my brother who knows me, they immediately know Kevin is my brother, and Steve is the same way when it comes to Jeff. We had a great time, I hung out with and got to meet some of his friends, and they really made me feel welcome. I'm really looking forward to hanging out with Steve more, because he's a UGA grad/fan, and he's a super cool dude. We met up for dinner...wait, let's start with the rest of my day.

Woke up this morning and had some Kellogs Corn Flakes. Yes, I did taste them again for the first time, and they were delicious with my blueberries and Silk soy milk. I set out with 3 goals today. 1) Fix my Java apps on my phone, 2) Get my NY drivers license, and 3) job hunt. We're going a bit bass ackwards today, so I found a Nextel Service center up on 181st St. Carlos and Eduardo were great, they're Pro Wrestling fans, and all around nice guys. They said to wait about 2 hours once they tinkered with my Java apps, and to go on my merry way. OK, in the words of Jeff Pack, "check that off the list" (incidentally, I was carrying a checklist, but that's neither here nor there). So I hopped a train down to 34th St. to update my license.

There are few pleasures in life than dealing with the local DMV. Really, it's quite a joy. These people are so pleasant and helpful, why, it's as pleasant as any root-canal or visit to Dr. Jellyfinger when I hit the age of 40. I told the nice lady behind the booth (which was situated to where she was looking down at me, but it must've been a co-inky-dink) that I had just moved here from GA, I updated my license with the state of GA last year, and that I had just moved to NY and needed to update my license. I had said GA license on me ready to exchange along with my Social Security card to prove my identity. She looked at me and told me I needed proof of birth. I thought that me standing there was appropriate proof, seeing as I hadn't just appeared out of thin air. Or better yet, no, neither of my parents were amoebas nor starfish, ergo, I was part of a live birth, which is why I stand here today in need of a NY license. But why should it be that easy. Jeff Pack, I know your pain with the California DMV my friend. Completely ridiculous. So I was smart enough to leave my birth certificate in GA, which is a great place for it. On a side note, it's a hospital certificate, and if I ever wanted a passport (which I do), I'll need to apply for a state birth certificate, so I'll be handling that tomorrow. "We need proof of birth." Only at the DMV.

After that complete waste of time, I hit the job circuit. Chef David from Einstein's fame told me to hit 6th avenue headed towards central park, because there's a ton of restaurants there. I did a bit of hunting in that area, then I headed back to Times Square. I filled out a few apps today, and I have to say, it's quite a humbling experience walking in and asking for a job. You basically fill out the same information over and over again and again. Same info, same places you worked, same references. I set the goal to have a job by the end of my second week here, and I'm ahead of schedule, so I'm not too worried. I'm going to follow up on a few places early next week and knock that out. Onto the evening.

I got home, made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and changed. I was on my way to meet Steve, but it was raining heavily. My sweet roommate loaned me an umbrella, however it was no good, because the weather today was nasty. The bottoms of my jeans are still soaked. I'm running late to meet my new friend, it's raining, however, Steve was super cool and talked me through were I was going. We had Asian/noodles at this place by where he lived (Jeff, you'd love this place...it's so Pack...which is why I can see why Steve brought me there). Had a great time, and then it was off to the birthday gathering.

Steve's friends were great. They work in the financial industry, and there were a plethora of Atlanta peeps and UGA grads, so I felt at home. I started talking football with one of the guys Russ, and we went so far as to talk about Georgia's backups and their signing class. Dan (it was his birthday) sat across from me, and him and Steve were talking about different shots they had invented, one being a "bear fight." If I remember correctly, a bear fight is a Jager bomb followed by an Irish car bomb. At first, we came up with "rabid bear fight," which would include the aforementioned shots, plus a shot of tequilla. However, being the stickler that I am, and knowing that bears are not indigenious to Mexico (Black bears, Brown bears, Grizzlies, etc.), I pointed out that maybe adding tequilla to the shot wouldn't necessarily make it rabid, and wouldn't really keep a bear theme. Then someone asked if bears can even get rabies, to which I answered yes, since it's a mammal; any mammal can get rabies. By the way, I wouldn't recommend talking about rabies, mammals, or which members of which class are susceptible to rabies. Way to make a first impression B, you're the new guy, and you're over there correcting the shots people get and giving them a biology lesson. Let's save National Geographic or Survivor Man for another time. Anyway, Steve's friends laughed, and they were really cool about my dorkiness. Oh, and we decided Stoli would be a good way to finish off the bear fight and make it rabid, seeing as bears can be found in the Russian wilderness. Great group of folks last night, and I'm glad they allowed me the pleasure of their company. Steve gets a game ball.

After that, I took the A train back up to my part of town, started this blog and went to sleep. Oh, and if you're wondering, prior to going out last night, I had to stop back by the Nextel store and have my phone fixed again, since it didn't take the first time. Now it works, the only issue is I can't download Pac-Man. Tonight I'm going to catch Abell's improv show. I'll be ready to give notes to complete strangers afterwards, since everyone loves being corrected. Until next time...