Trains, Trance, and Toilet Paper

I'm sitting down with some tuna mac and leftover Charles Shaw as I write tonight's entry. The big charges of the day came from needing laundry detergent, coffee and toilet paper, which my passed out friend informed me I was out of, once she woke up.

Decent morning. Made a jalapeño, onion, cheddar omelette for breakfast. Racked up some stars on Guitar Hero, and went to workout. Then I packed up some leftover pasta from last night, an orange and water and headed out to Summer Stage in Central Park, probably my favorite free place in the universe.

There I saw Cinematic Orchestra, an acid jazz band. They weren't much to dance to, though that didn't stop this kid. Mostly all you could do is stand there and do what I like to call the 'Trey sway.' If you've been to Phish concert, you understand. Speaking of Phish, I noticed these two splitting beers and was slightly jealous, but beer at concerts is actually kinda tyrannical. It takes time and stress and lines and being overcharged to get them. Today my budgetary limits taught me that there is a relaxing freedom to just saying "No." I got to lay there, close my eyes and enjoy the music, smell the ganga in the air, and let my mind go. If I was in a spending frame of mind it would be a constant eyeballing of the beer cup and wondering when I was headed back to the beer line and spending the beer money.

It was nice to lie out in the sun, and I'm also almost entirely sure that I sat about 6 feet away from Ben Curtis who you all will recognize as the Dell Dude. Also, sitting nearby was Max the Intern, a kid from work. His brother, Sam the Intern showed up later. One odd thing about this town is that, even though I'm new, every couple of weeks I just run into someone I know. It seems improbable in a city of 8 plus million, but it happens all the time.

After the concert ended and I said goodbye to my friend I headed towards Brooklyn. It being the first Saturday of the month means free happenings at the Brooklyn Museum. But today I was reminded how terrifically the subway can ruin your plans. They always run squirrelly on the weekends due to construction. I assume the impetus being that it will be less disruptive to people to do construction on your off time rather than going all nutty during the week. But since most New Yorkers blame any tardiness on the subways running funny, I think MTA should do their business during the week and let us have the trains running properly on our time and not the man's. Needless to say, I couldn't take the 4 or 5 directly to the Brooklyn Museum, so after a missed stop and a wrong exit and a $1 bottle of water, I decided the Brooklyn Museum could wait till next month. I headed home for Chuck and Tuna Mac.

Now for the numbers.

Starting balance -$3.50

In: $10

Out: Detergent: $3:25
Coffee: $1:50
Toilet Paper: $1
Water: $1

Balance: -$0.25