So last night I was watching TV in order to chill out before bed. Because network TV can be crap I turned to PBS. And i stumbled upon the most interesting documentary. It was about Newark.

A little background:
New Jersey has huge problems so politics are very big in NJ. Northern NJ being so close to NYC has even bigger problems. This is due to many factors: huge value of the land-major water ways. ports to supply NYC, terror threats being close to NYC- but no money to fund prevention (the 93 terrorists were from NJ) and HUGE political corruption, pollution, kick backs, the list goes on and on. Frequently people can not believe things like this are allowed to go on and comment how this would never happen in New York.

So the documentary was about the most recent mayoral election in Newark. There were two candidates- the incumbent and an ivy league young guy. Both were black. So basically the whole point of the film was to show the insane amount of corruption by the current mayor and how the people of Newark are just shooting themselves in the foot by keeping this man who has been in office for 30 some years in office. Yet they continue to just because he is viewed as more black than other people.

So with out going into this huge replay of the story i'll just go into how corrupt this man is. He had the challengers office broken into several times, bugged his office, used police intimidation for any local business displaying a campaign sign for his challenger, then made the businesses give a donation to his campaign, went around town and in plain sight defied a federal order and took down 250 billboards in one day, at any political gathering would plainly disrupt the event, attempted tampering with voting machines, using the police to detain members of his challengers campaign by saying they were terrorists (clearly these men were just journalists), using his body guards to physically break any journalists equipment who wrote unflattering things about the mayor, busing in people from Philly as paid volunteers and saying they were from Newark and unpaid. And the list goes on and on.

I was in shock. These things are actually on film, no here say or rumors. Actually on tape. People always said this happened but I never believed it really could happen and yet HE was still elected for another term. This man who was destroying their city in front of their very eyes. The city is a crap hole, people call it the war zone. The mayor just keeps the cycle of poverty going and they elected him again. Apparently this is what they call they Marion Barry syndrome (the DC mayor who got caught smoking crack and was still re-elected.

I will never buy another over rated apple anything again. I totally got sucked into the posh I'm a new yorker I must consume apple products. Apparently my computer is a big fire hazzard and I had no ide. I used to leave it on all the time. They are sending me the parts to fix it. Also I have a mere 3000 songs on my laptop and my f'in hard drive is full. Now I have to drop $150 to buy more memory otherwise my ipod wont work its this whole issue. PLus I have to pay some one to install it. This issue plagued my afternoon yesterday. F apple!

Yes it does appear that at times my life is more fab than yours. However you seem to forget how I lived at Stony Brook for 4 1/2 years. Those 4 1/2 years were very unfab. For example:

Living in a dorm room with 3 girls. I slept on the futon. The came to fix our window in the middle of winter and accidentally screwed it open (meaning we could not close it and I slept right beneath it) in Nov. and never fixed it.

Making the choice between quarter drafts and doing laundry. Laundry never won that.

Having no money on my meal card so I'd either: buy 12 ramen noodle packs for a dollar and eat only those, or steal saltines and jelly from the cafeteria to make mini saltine sandwiches. This was interspersed by attending any event no matter how retarded it was to get the free pizza they served (I am not jewish and I was at a few of those events, also the lgba events, and various frat parties)

Not being able to afford groceries even when I had a job, so I'd go home and go grocery shopping in mom's fridge.

Living in New York/Stony Brook for the summer and being so broke that me and my friends would scope out places that kept the toilet paper and new bottles of hand soap under the sinks in the bathrooms and then stealing it.

Drinking 40s (well ok I still do that but at the time it was not by choice)

So as you can see I have had to pay my dues just like everyone else. Some day you'll have a c-list celeb studded life too...

I have to make this short and sweet because it is way past my bed time and my work out has taken the best out of me. However I had a c list celeb sighting- I saw the personal trainer they made over on queer eye. He was really dark tan and had more highlights than me. I guess thats what happens when you let gay new yorkers make you over (no offense pmt). Im counting it as a legit sighting and I am still on track for my 1.5 sightings a week.

Do I have a problem?

PS my foodie obsession lover (Jeffrey Chodrow works in my building I found out today, sigh we breathe (sp?) the same air every day).

I joined NetFlix due to my lack of cable. It's not really that I can't have cable it is just insanely expensive. With my last roommate we had a $200 a month cable bill. I just can not see how that is necessary in any way shape or form. So for $15 a month I can rent as many movies as I'd like. I think T-Dog used to belong to this?! I'll let everyone know if it's really worth it...

PS Today is my first day of training. Ugh. I so don't want to work out, but I guess my extra 50 pounds just is not going to go away by itself. I hope this is all worth it...

Ok I love Dave Matthews and they are playing in August at Red Rocks in Colorado. I really really want to go. Anyone interested in joining me? I don't know anyone who likes DMB enough to shell out the cash to go there to see them, but this is going to be an amazing show. Ugh- any takers? Seriously if you know anyone who would be interested this is going to be a show of a lifetime...

LL Cool Jay as in Ladies love cool james is in a new tv show on Fox. I knew i loved that trashy station for a reason. I have loved ll since i was first allowed to listen to music.I grew up in a "christian" household w no rap allowed. Sigh, I love ll he is so hot. Im watching this show come hell or high water.

On a different note- I hate laundry. I just want a wife to do all the household chores for me.

Friday night just as I am packing up to go home and enjoy a manless evening I get a call from one of my co-workers Rajal. She actually used to work with me at Deloitte and I really like her. She wants to know if I am up for a drink. Did I hear alcohol? By now you should know working in finance makes you turn to the bottle. So yeah I want a drink. Then she says east village- place of my sighting of MK Olsen and my rocker one nighter. Of course I want to go there. She we get off at 8th and NYU one of my fave spots. We walk around for a bit trying to decide where to go. The she mentions she knows the owner of this one pub. I am in free drinks- I am all about that. So we go and she calls her personal trainer who also knows the owner of the bar and asks him if he wants to join us. So in walks this amazing specimen of manliness. Drool. He sits down right next to me. At first im thinking this guy is so hot and built he has to be a jackass. But oh no- he is amazing AND flirting with me?! I could not believe my amazing luck. He went to Stony Brook just like moi and we had a ton in common. Have I mentioned he was hot? In any case he has inspired me to work out and now I will be working out w him. I must have been a saint in another life because I have managed to date some really freaking hot men (ok so it never works out, but still). Sadly rajal wanted to go have dinner so we had to leave. We went to this Tibetan place which was so yummy and good for the soul. What a fantastic unexpected evening. Now its 90 degrees in NYC and I am staying indoors.

Update on my par-ta (update requested by Paul):

Went into crooklyn, my new jeans are comfy and the perfect fit.Got to the party fashionably late (is there any other way to arrive?). There was tons of food, wine and my fave champagne! So in any case got there and Mimi forgot to tell me they had cats. I was kinda pissed because I hate cats (Sorry Mr. Mang). I am so fucking allergic to those fur balls and was not looking forward to another cat filled evening. I decided to just go with the flow and see if I started sneezing. I ended up being ok- well ok for 3 hours. So the usual hipsters were there. Im not a huge fan of the hipster crowd, but these ones ended up actually being coolio. I met this girl Jackie and she was a lot of fun. We had a ton of great conversations about:

1. Vermin in NYC- What nasty infestations we have had (scabies, bed bugs, carpet beattles, mice, roaches) and how you feel so gross that you have these things yet everyone has them. Then everyone went around the room and told what infestations they have had recently.

2. Central Park and the safety of it.

3. Neigborhood snobs. People have this thing about where you live and depending on your location it either adds value or detracts value to you as a person. Since Im in jersey I am not even on the radar. I actually found out guy #3 in my previous post couldn't handle dating a jersey girl.

4. How Seinfeld makes 100% more sense once you live here. It really is the best show ever and so like everyday life here in a way you just don't understand unless you are here.

5. The crazy people on the train that you see everyday and have you ever followed them to prove they aren't crazy.

6. Times you have been harassed by teenagers on the train (amount of time the harassment lasted, how embarassed you were, location/train it occured on).

7. Lastly and most importantly- Ability to spot celebs.

Topic not discussed but maybe should have been- Should I call the rocker from Friday night? Hmmm....

After my rantings yesterday I went out to drink my worries away. Yeah well I started drinking vodka on the rocks at 6pm and keep on going until around midnight when I switched it up and started on the PBR. thats when things went south. Liliho why didn't I read your journal before I went out?! Yeah I went home w another shady guy. He was all punk rock east village style. Who knows what that was all about. I did the walk of shame and got home at 8 am.I justgotup and now I have to gear up for crazy night #2. This time its a party in brooklyn. Im crossing my fingers and hoping I can remian slightly more in control this evening. The positive thing about this all is I have guy #3 (from m yprevious journal) 100% out of my system. For those of you interested in the exact details of my trist I'll give them later- I need some water and I need another shower- the east village is grimy ew....