Tony's Treehouse Blog

Taste of Home

This has been an eventful rollercoaster of a week. And pretty much most of it isn't going in my journal...haha! However, today was a pretty good day. Got some chores done; laundry is getting critical when you start doing the countdown of how many drawers are remaining. Also ran some errands. The highlight hands down was going to the Jamaican place around the corner my apartment. NO Jamaican cuisine and US Virgin Islands cuisines are not the same, but they are similar enough to make me feel like home. For example, jerk, which is damned good is native to Jamaica. We don't do jerk. Nonetheless, got myself a plate of jerk chicken, a bottle of peanut punch and sea moss. Peanut punch is well, a blend of peanuts, cashews and some other stuff to smooth it out and make it taste really good. Sea moss, that one I'm not too sure about. It could very well come from the sea for all I know. It's good whatever it is! I remember we used to buy that from this guy who sold it out of his car in a parking lot, after the supermarket closed.

Man, I would NEVER buy a homemade beverage out of the trunk of some guy's care here in the states!! haha! One of those cultural things. We can do that back home because they island is so small, if that vendor (using that word loosely) messed with the product or the quality was bad or whatever, word would get around pretty quick. He'd be out of business or at least limping for a few days.

All good things...

We were all up until about 2 or 3AM this morning. That was an early night for us considering we usually didn't turn in till 4AM. Got up this morning to the ultra-strong pot of coffee Susan made and talked for a bit before heading to the airport. I didn't say much in the car, because frankly it was very saddening. Having Susan here was like having Spring come for real. And since the weather is shitty even though technically *spring* is here, hope the meaning is clear.

Pics from the weekend are here:

Other than that, I cooked, napped and just chilled out. Kinda weird now not having anything to do.

Art, grease and going south

Today was another bomb ass day on the Suz-n-Tony Show. We first went to the Philadelphia Art Museum, mainly to just see the museum and pick up some souvenirs. The plan was to hit a few places today. That and as Suz put it bluntly to me, "I don't want to spend the whole day looking at modern art!!" haha!! There will be some cool pics in the photo gallery of the facade of the building.

After that we made our way to get Philly cheesesteaks. This was a MUST for her visit. We get to the address from the directions online, and BOTH of the cheesesteak places are right across the street from each other. Both of those places are world famous. Alrighty. So we flipped for it, heads for Geno's and tails for Pat's. Heads won out. It was a really good sandwich, but we were expecting more grease and stuff. The sandwich was more, um, civilized than expected.

Then it was off to South Street. We walked my be 12 blocks up and 12 blocks down, checking out stores, and people watching. The weird thing was, interspersed with all these local looking stores and restaurants would be a Starbucks, Blockbuster and Gap. WTF?!

We decided to head back after that and get ready for Asaunta and Raissa's visit. I had gumbo to finish off before dinner time. We watched Loving Jezebel and The Bourne Identity. It was funny watching the girls' reactions to the surprises in the movie, like when the guy came crashing through the window...haha! That was fun for me. :)

Viva Cuba Libre!!

Ok, so I have no idea what I just said in Spanish. For all I know I could have insulted someone's mother. I am reminded of Tony Montoya from the Princess Bride out to avenge his father's death...haha!

Today what did we do? A whole lot of nothing during the day! We pretty much went to our seperate corners and did our own things. Susan read, while I re-discovered there wasn't a whole lot on daytime television. Jerry Springer was still on. Go figure. HOWEVER, in between that we managed to make a mean pot of gumbo. The stuff looks awesome and on point! The house smelled wonderful!

Later on in the evening we went to Cuba Libre in Philly. Susan has a mojito fetish and Cuba Libre is just the place to satiate such a thing. And dear goodness the mojitos were incredible!! Reading the description, I learned they make theirs with pure sugar cane juice!! Sugar cane is INCREDIBLE! But I digress, the food was awesome, the drinks incredible, and the salsa performs were just a flurry of quick-quick-slow.

And then there were the posers. Sigh. There was a group of women who looked to either be celebrating someone's birthday or pending nuptials. They annoyed the shit out of us. The bride or birthday girls was wearing something wholey inappropriate for her body. It was some bra/sheer baby doll/push up number. Here breasts were damned near popping out the top, but her stomach was FOR SURE popping out the bottom. WTF. Then of course there was their friend who was twitching more than she was dancing. Overrated. But she thought she looked good. Then there were the guys doing their best Elaine from Seinfeld impressions. It was comedy personified.

Usually our philosophy on dancing is, if you're having a good time, it really doesn't matter. After seeing some of these people dance, yea we're gonna have to reassess that little philosophy of ours.

Finally there was the 'VIP' area at the Suede Lounge. Suz and I heard some decent music emenating from the building and decided to go investigate. We enter the club to find this area roped off labelled, 'VIP Area'. This area's VIP status was questionable as the sofas looked like something you'd get off the curb after the end of a college school year. There was no carpet or decent flooring to be found. And then there was the trash can right NEXT to the VIP area.

Good times man.

Oh yea, did I mention that we looked damned good tonight? Oh but I should because it definitely worth mentioning! Susan, woo, that girl.

Shooting, Shopping, Sushi and Movies

Shooting, shopping, sushi and movies totally sums up what Susan and I did today. And the day didn't end till 4AM. :-) First we went to the gun range. Actually the first stop was to a shoe place - for SUZ not me. haha! The gun range was nice!! We originally hadn't planned on going shooting, but I found out recently that Suz likes to go now and then. We get there, rent a couple of hand guns and were on our way. SO SO FUN! I rented an H&K .45 and Suz got a Glock 9MM. My gun held 8 rounds, whereas hers held 15.

Waaaay back when I went shooting with some co-workers I used an H&K .45. Definitely not the same gun I shot today. The gun I shot back then had a different barrel and grip. The one I shot today was much more compact. Anyway, I LOVE H&K guns! The .45 had a helluva kick and at first every round was falling way low of 6 o'clock. Pissing me off because I'm better than that. Half way through the box of ammo, my aim got better.

Susan on the other hand was wrecking shop on the targets! I'd say a good 75% of her shots were clustered around the main center part of the target. In other words, she was hitting what would be the guy's torso most of the time. Don't ask me who she was thinking of when she was doing all that!! Mwhaha!

After that I literally dropped Susan off at the mall so she could do her shopping. I went off and did other stuff, because Susan is a serious shopper. A one woman retail wrecker! So she leaves H&M, and I'm like so where's the color? I dragged her over to Express, called to the closest sales woman and yell, "this woman here needs some color in wardrobe!" haha!! In the end she got some nice stuff, that wasn't black or grey or khaki...hahah!! Susan and I suffer from the same mono-chromatic fashion affliction...lol.

Then it was off to Mikimoto's for sushi we've been waiting since Vegas in January to have!! We people watched among other things, these older women apperantly trying to relive their youth. Martinis in hand and revealing attired draped over skin that was tanned waaay too much, trying to pick up guys noticeably younger than them.

We made our way back to the apartment and did a mini-movie marathon. If you haven't seen the ORIGINAL Japanese version Shall We Dance, I HIGHLY recommend it. Recommend it over the Richard Gere version. Although Gere was excellent, as was Susan Sarrandon (altho she needed to wear bras more often), Jennifer Lopex SUCKED huge hair monkey balls! And the American version deviated so much from the Japanese version, and not always in good ways. Anyway, rent them both and decide for yourself. I may have to write another entry on the differences of the 2 movies.

Snap, crackle, and pop

Today I was running errands, and had a little automotive mishap. This woman who was going entirely tooooo slow in front of me, and doing some weird weaving thing needed to be passed. I stabbed the gas pedal - and nothing happened! The gas pedal just bottomed out on the floorboard. Grrr. Fortunately I had enough momentum to get off the road. Called AAA, got the car towed to Pep Boys to only find out that the throttle cable isn't something they normally carry! It was a dealer item. And oh yea, they couldn't do anything until Monday! So my car is sitting in the Pep Boy's parking lot awaiting parts.

I'm not going to bitch because a) I have the money to fix it b) I was able to get off the road without incident and c) it didn't happen NEXT weekend when Susan is here. Hopefully there won't be any other surpised this week.

Long Good-bye's

My friend Larissa shared a powerful passage from a book she's been reading, and I want to share it:
"Once you know you have to leave a place where your life has changed,
each day becomes a departure, peeling away at your skin, tearing pieces away until the waiting to leave becomes almost as painful as the leaving itself."
- taken from, The Noise of Infinite Longing : A Memoir of a Family--and an Island written by Luisita Lopez Torregrosa

For me this passage means a lot of things, but the biggest thing is I should've left Santa Barbara a lot sooner than I did. Probably something on the order of 2 or 3 years sooner than I did. For a time I was knocking out degree requirements in huge chunks, while working insane hours and managed to maintain some similance of a life. Don't know if it was burnout or seeing the end scaring the shit out of me. Santa Barbara was the closest thing to home. The house I stayed in with Dave and Pam, was comfortable and my 10'x12' room was all the world I knew. As I look back now, I knew at some point my time in SB was limited as far as school was concerned. And unless I wanted to live in small ass expensive studio apartment that used to house somebody's cars, getting a decent place wasn't going to happen. Getting any kind of interesting job that paid anything decent was also out of the question.

Prolonging the enevitable did more damage, than doing what needed to be done and letting go. Heh. Letting go, how bout that...

How sick can a dog get?

I ask because people like to say 'oh, I'm just sick as a dog.' Well I was sick this week, like I haven't been sick in a long ass time. Aches, congestion (coughing up all manner of colors and consistencies), and the chills. Gotta love feeling COLD even though your thermostat is set to 85, and under a comforter fully dressed from head to toe! Oh yea, don't get it twisted this entry, is being written much after the fact because I didn't have it in me to write nada between Tuesday and Friday. One night when I thought I had sweat it all out, nope, the next night came the sequel: bigger, badder and blacker than before! Thank god for Nyquil and Extra Strength Tylelon. I'm still not 100%, but have an appetite again, can breathe through one nostril, and not drenching my clothes in sweat when I sleep. Which is good because I was running out of clothes and bed linens. As I proof this entry, it occurs to me that I'm making light of the situation and was totally nonchalant. Yea, well, one night I damned fell over a couple of times. If only they made extra strength Nyquil.

How sick can a dog get?

I ask because people like to say 'oh, I'm just sick as a dog.' Well I was sick this week, like I haven't been sick in a long ass time. Aches, congestion (coughing up all manner of colors and consistencies), and the chills. Gotta love feeling COLD even though your thermostat is set to 85, and under a comforter fully dressed from head to toe! Oh yea, don't get it twisted this entry, is being written much after the fact because I didn't have it in me to write nada between Tuesday and Friday. One night when I thought I had sweat it all out, nope, the next night came the sequel: bigger, badder and blacker than before! Thank god for Nyquil and Extra Strength Tylelon. I'm still not 100%, but have an appetite again, can breathe through one nostril, and not drenching my clothes in sweat when I sleep. Which is good because I was running out of clothes and bed linens. As I proof this entry, it occurs to me that I'm making light of the situation and being quite flippant in my prose. Yea, well, one night I damned fell over a couple of times - literally. If only they made extra strength Nyquil.

Being sick sucks!

Like anyone would really say that being sick is soooo cool, right? I was really sick a week ago, and had to call out a couple of days. And when I thought I was getting over it completely, bam back again. This is my first real East Coast winter, and may be that's to be expected? Grrr. I'm just going to keep a full bottle of Nyquil in the medicine cabinet at all times.

My favorite part to being sick, is not being able to swallow without feeling like my throat is going to implode. That is just the best.

Too Happy Hour

This entry had to have been written a couple of days after the actual event because I got home way late and was in no condition to write it, being tired and all. Once a month some of us from work get together for a Happy Hour. Usually I end up leaving a little early, because of plans after. This time I resigned to stick around for as long as possible because of the flack I get whenever I left earlier. And all I gotta say was, it was comedy!! Let's see...the quick rundown:
1. Young guy is partially successful in picking up someone older than him, and a few rungs up the corporate ladder from him.
2. I gave a co-worker a lapdance, showed her the finer points of ass shaking
3. Annoying tall chick interrupts our pool game. What is it about women (yea, I'm making a generalization here) who *think* they're hot and should be paid special deference? This chick's confidence was unjustified. She did show us her g-string though. Skanktabulous!
4. Guy at work makes a total ass of himself and almost gets his ass beat.
5. This one is my favorites: these 2 guys at work go outside in 20-something degree weather and start to wrestle in the SNOW. They took their shirts off and proceeded to go WWE, one-on-one in the freaking SNOW!!

There was a part of the night that wasn't so nice. Couple of the younger guys were making disrespectful comments about a couple of the women there. And it's the same ones too. Didn't feel proud to be a guy part of the night.

Simple Things

The last month or so I've been eating as healthy as possible and cheaply as possible. I've been mainly cooking at home and taking lunch to work, unless I really can't stomach another homemade sandwich or soup freshly squeezed from a can. The other reason is to loose weight. Figured out that I need to eat somewhere like 3700-3800 calories a day just to MAINTAIN my weight. And about 500 less to loose weight. And even on my unhealthiest of days I never ate that much. You may be asking yourself, well what about the 2000 calorie/day thing on the back of food cartons. Yea, well, those stats are NOT meant for everyone. It's an old archaic system the government created to help promote heightened education when it comes to nutrition. Caloric intakes depends on a person's age, weight, height, and activity level. So say the caloric intake of a 23 year-old 115lbs. woman who runs 4 miles a day, isn't the same as a 23 year-old woman who has a more sedentary lifestyle. Switch man for woman, and up the poundage in this example, and the same would be true for a man.

Anyway tonight, I abandoned the whole healthy action and went to McDonald's for a Double-cheese burger combo, large, and strawberry shake. This after a friend I haven't seen in a long time says it looks like I'm loosing weight...hahaha! Also after I put a pullover on I hadn't worn in awhile to discover there's a bit more space around me than I'm used to. Too funny. Still, one combo meal isn't going to kill me. So at the end of a pain in the ass day, I'm watching the West Wing and having my combo meal. Tomorrow, I'll feel like shit, get back to the gym and all will be right in the world again...haha!

Oh yea! Susan is coming to visit! And like for Vegas, we're emailing each other daily. You'd think we didn't have jobs! LOL Then we get online and CHAT some more. It's great! And then I step back and ask, what the hell do we have to say?!?! Her visit, right there is going to be a bright spot on this month. I've taken a couple of days off, and in our normal borderline anal retentive fashion, we've pretty much figured out what we're doing. She's a woman after my own heart. Few things irk the hell out of me, than to travel somewhere, even a roadtrip to get there and people be like, "so, uh, um, well we're here...um, yea...what should we do?" Absofrigginlute waste of time. Not Suz and I though!!