Just realized i've been writing in xanga for over 2 years.  Granted, i don't write as frequently as i used to, but it doesn't seem like it's been that long.  Getting older fast i suppose..

Thanksgiving break really came and went.  I was sick on and off for the first 3 days, which kinda sucked.  For the first time in at least 10 years, my family had Thanksgiving at my house.  We would always go to my aunt and unlce's house in boston, but since i'm there now, they decided to have the family come down to NY.  As a result, I had 6 other people sleeping in my house at some point while I was home.

We ended up having 16 people for thanksgiving dinner.  It was tough to accommodate, as you can see by our triple extended dining room table:

me / sam on thanksgiving

Happy Anniversary, Lisa!  Lisa and I were lucky enough to have been home to spend our anniversary together (this past saturday.)  We went to this restaurant in Merrick where lisa used to live called nicholas james.  We got there around 7 and it was pretty empty.  By 7:30 all the tables around us were filled up, and literally everyone knew each other.  I'd later find out at the movies (we saw National Treasure) that everyone in merrick knows each other, but don't always like each other.  These two couples ran into each other, and when the women were talking, i got the feeling they were thinking "i know you, but we're not friends and the only reason i'm talking to you is because i have to" 

I got what I expected from national treasure: some great / humorous lines and an always decent performance by nicholas cage.  I only wish i was more awake for the beginning of the movie.. lisa hit me probably a dozen time in the first 20 minutes   I also kept falling asleep when watched Elf at her house the night i came home.  We seemed to have switched roles this vacation.  She's always the one falling asleep during movies   

I don't know why we didn't take any pics on our anniversary.  Lisa / Me in my den the day I left to go back to Boston. 

Friday night i saw most of the chums when we went to China Beer in the city.  It was me, alex, steve, amir, mao, and sant.  I probably wouldn't have seen Sant if we didn't go to the city since he's living in NJ now, so that was cool.  Not too much to say about the night, unlimited beer for 2 hours for a flat fee of $12.95 (dinner included).  This place makes a killing, though.  The beer is definitely watered down and the place is always packed on friday and saturday nights.  Some pics:

Amir / Me / Alex -- we didn't seem to get too many "perfect" pictures that night. 

Decent picture of mao and steve.  Would've been better if it weren't for their perverted hand motions.

Sant taking a rest from his drink

Random humorous story from thanksgiving break.  Lisa and I went to best buy one day, and they had a special for 5 DVDs for $25.  The DVDs were in these two huge cardboard bins that people were rummaging through.  The sad part was that at least half of them were going all the way to the bottom of the bins, only to find the same movies that were on the top.  It was like seeing a bunch of ants move to one spot where juice spilled on the ground.  Also, there was an ad in the front of the store which told you exactly which DVDs applied to the offer.  I guess no one searching through the bins took the time to look at the ad first 

This semester went by too fast.. for me at least.  I know one person was waiting for the semester to end as soon as it started..hehe.  I'm so happy you're getting out of there, Lisa.

Classes end: December 8
Last final: December 14
Back to school: January 4 

Long entry ahead... “massive update” as some would say 

I've been meaning to write an entry for a while, but I’ve been busy with midterms / other work.  It was a really shitty and stressful week.  I had a paper due for soc of violence on Wednesday.  Thursday I was supposed to have 2 midterms and a test back to the back to back.  I then had another paper due on Friday.  However, in light of the redsox winning the World Series, my first midterm on that day was postponed until the following Monday. 

As I said in my last entry, Lisa was coming to visit me in Boston.  Her luck with public transportation has been less than incredible as of late.  It took her 6 hours to get to Boston on the bus from NY.  We were planning to go out to dinner somewhere when she arrived, but pretty much everything was closed by then.  BHOP (boston house of pizza, yeah.. it's okay to like it) was one of the only options, so we went there for dinner. 

We met Lisa Umans on Newbury Street for lunch the next day.  The rest of our day consisted of just walking around Newbury Street.  That night on the way to dinner, I took a pic of the prudential center during the redsox yankees series.  I thought it was pretty cool: 

Dinner at the blue room was really good.  It's a restaurant in kendall square near MIT.  Parts of Cambridge get disturbingly deserted after like 10 at night.  I felt like we were walking around in a ghost town.  On Sunday Lisa and I went to faneuil hall, otherwise known as quincy market.  I had only been there once since the boston trip in 7^th grade.  Ironically, the only time i went after that was to go see my sister when she was on the boston trip last year.   

The weekend just isn't long enough of a visit.  Even one more day makes a difference.  Regardless, it was still great having Lisa come to Boston.

The weekend after that was my school's parent's weekend.  I saw almost all of my family that weekend.  I sometimes take for granted how close in location they are to me at school.   I should probably make more of an effort to see them in the future.

This past weekend was midnight madness at Northeastern.  We're division 1, and have a pretty talented team, but not as many people support the program as they should.  Midnight madness was still a lot of fun, though.  They started with the staff vs. student basketball game.  Compared to last year, it was much more entertaining and competitive.  Some of these teachers could actually play.  The game was followed by a dunk contest between 4 players on NU.  The guy who won, Bobby Kelly, had some really impressive dunks for someone who's only 6' as you can see by the picture below:

Actual dunk was a bounce off the ground reverse held between the legs

The last part of the night was a scrimmage between the players on the men’s bball team.  I've played with some of them at the gym before, and didn't realize they were on the team.  Last year I saw flyers posted for open tryouts, which I was really tempted to do, but wasn't in good enough shape.  I would've liked to do it this year, just to see how bad it would be, but I haven't seen any info about it. 

Our best players are Jose Juan Barea and Marcus Barnes.  Barea is a solid PG that has played for Puerto Rico's jr national team for the last few years.  Pretty comparable to the way Carlos Arroyo plays, for those who know the NBA well.  I don't know if he's NBA caliber, but pro basketball is in his future. 

And to just add in a quick rant.  I'm fed up certain aspects of my current living situation.  It seems as though some people just weren't brought up correctly.  It makes no sense to me how people think it's okay to leave disposable garbage all over the kitchen, in the sink, and in the living room.  A few examples: plastic cups in the sink, instant noodle wrappers on the counter, garbage on the floor.  It's no wonder in a week’s time how we went from having 2 mice to 6.  Luckily that problem has already been taken care of.  A similar problem is when your roommates decide to leave their cups with milk out for a week, and then when you can’t take it anymore and go to throw it out, the milk has become nearly solid.  ABSURD. 

Knicks home opener Saturday night.
Home for the weekend to see Lisa.  I love you.

Over the last 2 weekends I’ve come home to celebrate Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.  Lisa also came home for those weekends, which was great.  Those first 3 weeks apart from her were definitely harder than I expected.  Days went by much slower, and my desire to do anything / see anyone was pretty minimal. 

The Friday I came home for Rosh Hashana, Lisa came to meet me at the LIRR in Penn Station.  If it weren’t for the fact that we had a train to catch, I would have just kept her there   Saturday night Lisa and I went out to dinner with my family to Nagashima, a Japanese restaurant in Westbury.  On Sunday we picked up breakfast at parkway deli and brought it to her sister’s soccer game.  We both decided by the end of the weekend that 2-3 days just isn’t long enough to see each other. 

I think from the point I got home for Yom Kippur on Friday until I left on Sunday, I was wearing formal dress clothing.  I went to services on Friday night so I was dressed up for that.  From there I went to Lisa’s house, so I didn’t change.  All of Saturday I was dressed up because I was at services again and then went to my grandpa’s house to break the fast.  Lisa came over to my grandpa’s house later that night. 

 Lisa / Me at my grandpa's house

After visiting with my family for a while, and my mom giving lisa an overly detailed tour of my grandpa's house, we met Alex and Umans for coffee.  Before i knew it, it was already sunday, the redsox had beat the yankees again , and lisa was leaving. 

Can't wait til 10/8.  I hope we don't have too much trouble finding the place

I usually don't complain about American culture / society, but the following two issues bother me quite a bit

1) I really have a problem with all these plastic surgery / reality TV shows like "The Swan" or "Dr. 90210".  The idea that people can just change the way they look through surgery is disturbing.  Unless someone is morbidly obese to the point where surgery is their only way to survive, it just shouldn't be done.  I was watching Larry King Live the other night and he was interviewing the doctors that are on "The Swan."  The way they were talking, it was almost as if the patients were like dolls that these "doctors" got to create.  Even worse is the fact that our society wants to see this enough that there are actually TV shows promoting it. 

2)  I also can't take this "no carbs, low carbs, only 1 g of net carbs" BULLSHIT.  I remember being at Burger King over the summer and seeing a sign for "NO CARBS!" yet under it was a picture of a bacon cheeseburger with no bun.  Or how about when I was at Fridays and they had a low carb menu, yet it was all red meat or dishes engulfed in cheese.  Not to mention every other product you see when you go to the grocery store.  When I saw low carb milk and orange juice a few weeks ago, that was the topper.

I guess i have two problems with this whole low carbs issue: a) The whole Atkins diet has really just become a marketing scheme for food vendors.  b) Atkins is so unhealthy for you, it's pathetic.  One may lose weight (i'm even skeptical about this over a long period of time,) but at the same time they're killing their heart / cholesterol.  It makes no sense that you can eat as much eggs, sausage, and bacon as you want, but you can't have a piece of toast with it. 

happy anniversary