So, I know I say this everytime I post, but it's been awhile. I don't know where the time has gone but it has certainly flew by. Highlights since the beginning of February (may or may not be in chronological order):

1) Finding Jesus. Just kidding. Found some really cool bars in the LES that I really like, such as Fat Baby and Welcome to the Johnsons

2) Saw a play on Broadway, The Rabbit Hole which I really enjoyed. It was totally sad though, about a young couple who lose their 4 year old son when he gets hit by a 17 year old high school senior. I was supposed to see it with my folks for Mom's birthday, but there was the flu going around, so I ended up seeing it with D.Dasch and Erin DeSoda.

3) Joined a gym. Getting back into shape for the upcoming ultimate season. Not too shabby, however I hate treadmills. It's funny, the locker room is up 5 flights of stairs, yet people complain about climbing them. C'mon, you joined a gym and your complaining about climbing stairs? I think it's one of the greatest ideas to have to work out before you work out. Booyakasha.

4) HopStop is flying. We have some big ideas coming soon, service that is really going to change how people think about public transportation.

5) Changed rooms! Went from a tiny, loud room to a larger, quieter room in the space of a month and a half. Double booyakasha. Now I just need to change these white walls into something that doesn't remind me a of an insane asylum.

6) Saw a movie that I thought was going to be about hot naked mexican chicks, and turned out to be a really disturbing story about kidnapping and fat naked mexican men. Do not see Battle in Heaven.

7) Found a store called Evolution, that contains alligators in little glass bottles and other nifty stuff! So cool.

8) Chinese restaurant open until 4 am that is kick ass and only a 10 minute walk away!

9) New roommates! Aaron, from DC is a chef which is good because he knows all the kick ass places to eat, plus knows some banging ladies and chill fellas to hang out with. Patrick just moved in, he is from Germany. He took over my old room....ha! Enjoy that...

The new count on Canal Street is 2 Germans, 1 Frenchie, 1 Frenchie/Greek, a Swede, a Korean, and 4 Americans. The real world but without the cameras and cool gifts and prizes.

10) I'm thinking about buying a bicycle. Any thoughts?

11) Big plans for March: Going home for a weekend, Skiing, maybe DC roadtrip....we'll see, we'll see....

I went to Philadelphia last night for Sweeneys 23rd birthday extravaganza. It wasnt extravagant, but it was still a good time. Ended up taking the Chinatown bus (round-trip only $20), even though I was supposed to catch a ride with Andreas, but he went down to DC first. This bus is great. I'm not sure if it is as good as Vamoose Bus in terms of comfort and amenities, but Apex does offer two things: 1) Fast as hell, I got down to Philly in just under 2 hours and back in 1:45. 2) Drop-off location: On the way back into NYC it stops about 2 blocks away. Ridiculous. I thought I was going to have to walk back from the Manhattan bridge when I see that its letting me out a hop, skip and a jump away from the hustle. This is awesome. As after eating a greasy breakfast and then hopping on the bus, it's paramount that me and the throne get back to one another. This reminds me of another thing about when I go to Philly. I eat the greasiest, tasty food that I know is horrible but I can seem to stay away. Cheesesteaks, Pizza, and Sparks. I hate sparks.
Oh well, maybe one day I will learn.

Funny things that I saw or thought of on the way back:
1) Why did I text Adam "16 oz of puppy" last night?
2) The sign in Jersey City before going into the Holland Tunnel "Jersey City: America's Golden Door". Heh heh heh.

Last night was the first party at the new place. One word: surreal. So much chattering in so many different languages, I would catch brief snippets of conversation that I could understand. Other times, I was lost in a sea of babble. All in all, it was a fun time. The Rook showed up for a while. I went to show him my room and the light bulb blows. So I switched bulbs with Sasha, the girl who's not back from England yet. Willis and Prachee come by, as well as Dana Dasch, so that was awesome too. It was really good to see and talk to some familiar faces. Lately I've been feeling a bit out of it.

Highlights from the night [in no particular order other than memory]:
1) Cops show up. Say we can have 30 people on the fire escape. Also that people have to shut up and stop singing bad french songs. Awesome.

2) Continuous feed of alcohol from 11 to 4:30. My liver hurts. I'm hungry.

3) To the dude who brought crepes at 2 am...that was awesome.

4) Prachee yoinking a tray of jello shots and scarfing them down, while drunk frenchmen lean on her shoulder.

5) A playlist not composed from ultimate videos...too strange.

6) Finding out that I live in a totally illegal situation. Apparently you can't have ten people living in a building zoned for commercial business.

7) Getting really drunk with my roommates, and bonding over strange occurrences.

Wow....What a crazy past few days it has been.

Last night we hit up this bar called Aroundthecorner, which is literally around the block from the apartment. Pretty clutch. Only problem was that Chrissy, forgot her ID, which makes some sense seeing how she is French, and no one carries id's there, and also that everyone has been of legal age for quite some time now. So we couldn't drink there, but ended up going to Tribeca Grill/Bar for drinks, which was a good time. I found a new favorite beer, Anchor Porter. It's dark, rich, and leaves a nice flavor in the mouth with each swallow.

And tonight we had a family-style dinner, where 6 of the 10 sat down and had dinner. The night was sweetened by having a La Galette des rois to celebrate epiphany, which is when the three wise men met Jesus. Now, what's interesting about La Galette des rois, which is a flat, round, pastry baked with a trinket concealed in the almond paste filling.

Whoever gets the trinket (known as a "fève" after the fava beans that served as the original trinket) becomes king or queen for the day. The winners get to wear a paper crown and to name their own king or queen, as the case may be.

This trinket is hidden inside the cake and you basically eat the cake until someone bites down on it, and goes "oh!My tooth!"..Guess who bit into the trinket? That's right this guy, the new kid. So I got needled/cajoled into picking my queen...Now I had three new roommates to choose from..Howw do I not offend anyone...yeessh, pressure and I haven't even been here for 3 nights!

It turned out all right and I got this cool crown that kicks the chicken fries out of anything BK could offer and a crazy looking wiseman who looks like a killer pope.

Tonight's my first night in New York City. So far everything is going well. My room is...cozy, but good. Right now the little heater is making the room nice and toasty and I am excited to go to sleep.

Highlights of today:

1) Moving in and unpacking.
2) Integrated kGTD into my work habits…after one day I'm not sure how I ever got anything done without it. If you have a mac, you should get it. It will change your life.
3) Leaving thai food in the fridge last wednesday when I dropped off a check, and discovered that it wasn't eaten...wow.

G'night.

On Monday January 9, 2006 Matthew Shiel moves into NYC.

I am very excited about this. My job goes full-time (whoohoo salary!), I'm done with the LSAT, and I'm going to be living in the biggest city in the world. I am very, very excited about this.

Let me give a bit of background on my living situation hunt:

So there I was, stalking the Rooms/Shares section of Craigslist, day in, day out. I would lay in wait, hidden the brush, pouncing on every possible ad I saw, but no bites. Either they only wanted a female roommate (c'mon it's 2006! Live a little), or were asking for way to freaking much cash, that I personally could not afford without taking out a loan on the Brooklyn Bridge. Then one day, inspiration struck! Why don't I create my own housing/living situation wanted ad. And lo and behold, I struck gold. Or rather, other people struck gold, came across my ad, and actually wanted me. I don't know if it was my dazzling good looks, witty personality, or smooth sense of writing, but I got a lot of replies.

So my search took on a physical aspect to it. I now went out into the gaping maw of skyscrapers and down deep into the digestive tube of subways to visually get a visceral reaction. Some of these reactions were like eh..., others were like EHH!!!, and others were awesome. A few conversations with possible roommates occurred, and while tempting, didn't quite satisfy like a snickers would.

So I decided to take matters into my own hands and attended a loft-living situation open house down on canal street. This was during the massive transit strikes, so no busses, no subways, just hoofing it, like our ancient ancestors did when trying to find a suitable cliff-face or overhang to spend the night.

After a grueling party process, I was one of the few that survived the initial initiation rite (is that redundant sounding?) However, my trials and tribulations were not over yet, no sirree, I had to attend yet another open house to meet the roommates who were either out of the country, area, or minds during my first visit. This second open house was a lot crazier, with double the people. Yet again, I triumped and was presented with a gilded phone call from Nina, who said, "Yes, Matt, you did get the room. Congratulations. It was rough, but you were selected". I give thanks to the Flying Spaghetti Monster for all that he's done for me so far.

Now the living situation is like this:
10 separate bedrooms of various sizes and shapes
2 full bathrooms
1 fully functional kitchen
1 washer/dryer combo in said kitchen
2 couches
2 hookahs
1 narrow rectangular table.

This means, 9 other roommates: 8 of whom I've met and thoroughly enjoyed their company so far. The make-up of the loft is very eclectic/international, with folks from london, sweden, france, and apparently an 18 year old german model moving in as well. There are also some folks from the good 'ole US of A, so I'm not the only odd man out.

I start packing this weekend, and move stuff in on Sunday, but am an official resident of NYC come Monday.

I'm ready for it, but is it ready for me?

Transit strikes are fantastic. Currently, I'm writing this from outside my office hallway due to the fact that the four individuals with keys (I am not one of these four) have decided to not show up for work. Luckily, I can still snag a wireless signal, as well as have access to an outlet. So here I am, sitting on plush carpet, tapping away, while people in shiny green suits make deals with the devil.

Back to the issue of the transit strike. I think it's great. Yes, it is an inconvenience to millions of people. Yes, the biggest transportation system in the world is shut down, ruining people's holiday shopping. Yes, cabs have hiked up their prices, and the sidewalks are jammed with people.

However, the lack of cars in the streets due to the 4-rider requirement, makes this city amazing. The streets themselves, are totally empty. One can look up and down the avenues, and see almost all the way to downtown. And it's quiet. So quiet, you can hear the steam rushing below the streets. Instead of cars there are bikes weaving up and down the blocks. Right now, if I could have anything, it would be a bike to just weave in and out through pedestrians. Even in the cold, this would be amazing.

I ended up talking to someone from Transportation Alternatives about what was happening on my walk over. Chris, was handing out pamphlets, maps, and other assorted literature showing what NY could be like if less people drove, and more walked, biked, or took public transportation. Right now, I would definitely go for something like that. The quiet is amazing. One can't even fathom the amount of noise pollution that exists until one gets rid of the cars.

Tonight, I'm going to walk downtown to look at an apartment. Even though it would be convenient to have the subway take me there, I think the walk will make it more of an adventure.