Lots to post about...   Let's recap...

Well, the Mets have gone to shit, and actually, they've been shit all year.  Its just that the Braves have decided they don't want to be shit anymore and now the Muttsies find themselves an insurmountable 4 games back.  Insurmountable in July?  Have you seen them play lately?   

And.. can I spew on John Franco for a moment?   And no, I'm not going to say he's a nice guy.  Well, he's nicer than Carl Everett, but who cares?  I don't wanna see nice guys play--I want winners, and this guy has been the Number One Loser reliever for the last 20 years.  I can't even figure out why he was a closer for so long.  Its like when you play softball with people you don't know and one guy tells you he plays thirdbase.  Yet, when he goes out there, he can't even make the throw across the diamond.  Just because you say you're something doesn't make you squat.  I think over the years the Mets could have had anyone closing for them and they could have been better...   at least in the regular season anyway.  As for big games, who knows, but this guy blew saves left and right... and not tough saves.  He'd just come in with none on in the ninth and make his own mess.  In fact, at times it seemed the only guy he could get out was Barry Bonds.  And now, he makes over a million a year and he's taking up a spot that maybe could be filled by some up and comer in the minors. 

Frankly, I don't understand how he gets anyone out.  He throws two pitches.  A fastball over the plate, and a changeup in the dirt.  If I was facing him, and I saw an offspeed pitch, I just wouldn't swing at it.  He never throws it for a strike.  Wait on the fastball.. that's all you have to do.

When David Cone realized he couldn't pitch anymore, he quit.  Sure, he came back, but he came back when the Mets really didn't have a lot of other options, so realistically, he wasn't keeping anyone back...   oooh Mike Bascik.  Big deal.  John Franco is done and he's been done since... oooh...  1993.  They never should have traded Randy Myers, and the idea that some washed up third tier closer is their Captain is ridiculous.  I don't care if he wears a sewer worker T-shirt under his jersey and his dad got swollowed by an alligator.  You're a bum!   

Ok... best line of the day from Thursday's lunch with the team. 

Marcy was talking about being really sensitive to smell when she was pregnant...   Charles chimes in and says, "Oh yeah, pregnency hightens all of your senses."

Jeff the Intern quickly follows with, "Speaking from experience, Charles?" 

Without hesitation, Charles responds:

"People like you never read anything and the some total of your knowledge of Biology comes from your own experience in the bathroom."

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Jeff the Intern.

In other news, I'll be implementing the following changes in my life:

1.  No more random first dates just for the heck of it.  I waste too much time going out with people on dates that go nowhere with people I'm not even that excited about.  I need to focus more on friends, and people who I actually like.

2.  Go to bed earlier.  11:30-midnight will be the new bedtime during the week.  I waste at least a good hour of sleep doing nothing but chatting online, watching TV, or just sitting around.  Its effected my time at the gym and my focus at work.

3.  A few more hours at work.  I have a lot of stuff on my plate and I haven't been executing lately.  More hours and a little more focus wouldn't hurt.

4.  More focused workout routine.  I've been going to the gym, but there hasn't been a theme around my workouts, as opposed to when I was training for baseball.  I need to create a schedule to follow of what I do when. 

5.  More time on the book.   I need to get this book done, and if Mary the Publisher doesn't pan out, I need to hit the ground running on self publishing.   

Alright.. that's all for now...   I have a funny story from going out the other night, but I need to work on #5 for now.

So its 7:30A.M. and I'm at work.  I had to come in and finish a memo so it could be on the CEO and COO's desks when they walked in.  I don't really mind coming in early.  I miss my gym routine, but I'll go after work now.  I would never go in the middle of the day and shower there, because, for some reason, you never really quite stop sweating even after you take a shower at the gym... then you get that weird watery sweat that trickles down your forehead when you think you're done.  Trust me, I know this stuff... I'm half Italian.  As a nationality, we sweat second to none.  Now, I have a few moments, so I'll just chat here for a bit.

Last night I went to the Philharmonic's Concert on the Great Lawn.  I have to say, there are very few things in this city I enjoy more.  Its really something to be laying down on a blanket in the middle of the lawn, surrounded by thousands of other quiet people, under the stars, listening to classical music.  People bring wine, cheese, cookie pies... all sorts of stuff.  I brought two pizzas and wound up sharing the leftovers with some of the concertgoers around us.  I couldn't believe how excited this old lady was next to us over a slice of pepperoni.  People love free stuff. 

So it was me, Deirg, Jeff the Intern, and basically a group of Jeanne's friends.  (I always go to call her "Jean", but she pronounces it "Jeannie".)  Jeanne did the mentoring program and now she plays on the GM softball team.  I had a lot of fun, and it was really good to have Deirg out with me.  I'm always cautious there, because I don't tend to mix worlds with Deirg.  Its not that I don't want people mixing with her... she's a lovely person.  I love her...  in fact, everyone loves her.  My family loves her more than they love me, I think, which is ironic, because they think she saved my life when I had lyme.  She's my best female friend and she's never even met half of the people I hang out with.  I actually wish she met more of my friends, but she's... well, kinda shy or intimidated around new people.  She's just more content to hang out with her closer friends than make idle chit chat with new people, and to a certain extent, I can appreciate that.  It just makes it hard when I'm more of an idle chit chat guy and all the people I know are randomly dispersed.

So, I said the funniest thing yesterday about Martha Stewart:

"Its only a matter of time before she stabs someone in the shower with a pinecone shiv."

I'm seriously considering putting some material together to do some amateur standup.  I think I have some great material.

A few routines:

--New Yorkers needing to step in front of the furthest person out when they wait at a streetcorner.  By the time the tenth person gets there, they're three quarters of the way across the street already. 

--Confirmation numbers:  No one on the face of the earth has ever actually needed to use a confirmation number for anything.  Why?  Because whatever system they have that uses a confirm number, it also has your NAME!

I don't really have more on Martha, but I think that pinecone shiv thing is good enough to build around.  :)

The phrase of the night:  The "Rack Pack".    That's what Samara and her friend Lisa call each other.   Gotta love it.

So tonight was the Fordham Young Alumni Softball Game...    It was a blast. We got great turnout, and a lot of people who don't normally show up to these sorts of things.  Even more importantly, Team GM maybe have signed two new females.  Who knew Alexis Kramer was a softball juggernaut?   The girl has a cannon and she can hit.  Nice late season acquisitions for the stretch playoff run.... very exciting.

I had the most amusing bus driver on the way home from the Gin Mill.  When we hit 2nd Ave, he announced, "Next stop, Atlantic City."    When we hit East End, he announced, "Manhattan Riviera."   Its the little things that keep us going, you know.

Anyway, there's a story about last weekend waiting to be told, but you know what, I'm over it.  Its not worth harping on... and the best part about it, I've had some really great times with fun people this week, so last weekend is a distant memory.... except of course for the time I spent with my family, which was great.  My mom and Nana went down to Tampa, and I came down for the second time this summer to see my brother and his family.  My nieces are wonderful... such smart kids, maybe a little silly, but they're 6 and 10, so who can blame 'em.  :)    Anyway...  I may have future stories for you...  we'll see how things go.

Its apparent to me that my life has become my own personal crusade... to weed out idiots, assholes, and the inconsiderate. The world, or at least this city, has run let these people run amuck. Amuck, I tell you! People who aren't doing the right thing, mostly in the realm of treating their fellow human beings with decency and respect, need to be stopped, or at least told off. When this guy parked across two spaces in front of my apartment, to save a spot for his other car, I said something to him. "Its hard enough to park in this city without people like you doing shit like that. That's a bush league move, dude." He just stared at me. The people on the stoop next to me looked at me like I had two heads--but I shouldn't be the one to be made to feel like I'm taking the world too seriously. We need to put a stop to all this--to speak out when wrong is done. Its like that movie where Chris Rock runs for president. You need to just turn around and say, "That ain't right!" Otherwise, all of these people will just gone on doing the same insensitive, selfish things over and over again. We need to collectively put our foot down as a society. No more laughing at someone when they drop a fly ball in kickball. No more saving spots, or even worse, going headfirst into one from behind while someone else is pulling in. And, when you makeout with someone, you owe them an explanation if you decide you don't want to anymore. Ignoring phonecalls is bush league and so is stalling. Stop the insanity!

http://www.nydailynews.com/07-02-2004/city_life/story/208129p-179460c.html

That's me in the orange shirt!!

So the last softball game went much better... In fact, it nearly went perfectly. We won 16-1 in a mercy rule shortened five innings, and the only run they scored was on the last play of the game, where the next runner they tried to send home got cut down at the plate by yours truly. :)

Anyway... Its 3AM on July 5th, and I'm eating an apple w/peanut butter. (Skippy Super Chunk) I've been spending more and more time, as I did tonight, with people I've met kayaking. I think what I like about spending time with these people is that it expands your social horizon--challenging you to mesh with people you would otherwise have no social connection to. I mean, when I go to ILPA conferences or Fordham Young Alumni events, there are certain shared sets of circumstances that give you something to work with--social training wheels so to speak. Here, there's nothing of the sort, and the extent to which I know zero of the lives of the people around me overwhelms me (in a good way, I think).

As I was driving home, there was a car in front of me whose license plate said, "Howyedoin".

I think pretty good.

I'll let you surmise how yesterday's GM Softball game went. This is the note I sent to my team afterwards...

"Yesterday's game was an embarrassment, and it will not happen again. I'm not talking about the final score, but in how we acted--both in how we carried ourselves and in how we acted towards each other. Almost to a player, every single one of us made a bad play at some point in the game. Our heads weren't in the game and we tossed the ball around like a bunch of little league kids. The idea that anyone thought their performance yesterday rose above anyone else's, enough to criticize your own teammates, is ridiculous.

Considering the fact that our team counts on outsiders to play with us, we need to be a lot more thoughtful about how we act towards each other. Anne has played with us four games, Kristy Glass for three... and we've counted on other invites from myself or Mike D. before. If I was playing with us for the first time yesterday, I'd never want to come back. We can't afford for our guests to start dropping out on us or we'll start forfeiting games. When I invite my friends to games, I'd like to have them walk away thinking that we've got a great bunch of people playing--not leave with the bad taste in their mouths they had after yesterday.

Cross made a great point after the game yesterday. Think of the teams we've played this season, and for those of you who were around last year, even the teams last season. We are the ONLY team I have ever seen in this league yell at their own players. NO ONE else does that. Its pathetic, and going forward, if it happens again, in any situation, I will just ask those people to leave the game. I don't care who I have to play at what position, I refuse to subject anyone on this team to that kind of treatment. Its completely disrespectful. If we have another complete breakdown of respect like we did yesterday, I'll just ask the commissioner to forfeit the rest of our games and that will be the end of our season.

Next week, we are not just going to win, but we are going to play the right way from the first pitch to the last---supportive of our teammates, cheering every at-bat, shaking off bad plays, and knowing what to do when the ball comes to you. Its important that every individual goes out of their way on every single play next week to make up for this game."

"Good to hear from you. The proposal now gets read and assessed by
various colleagues and possibly reviewed by outside academic reviewers.
This can take a few weeks. We put content/style and market feedback on
the project and work up a costing as to sales/print run/price etc.

So if you don't hear from me or one of my colleagues about the project
for a few weeks, please do not assume the worst !"

Hmm....  I hate to be overly optimistic, but I have to think this is a pretty good sign.  I mean, why would they bother putting numbers on the project if they didn't at least buy off on the concept.  And its not like Mary owes me anything that she needs to give me a free pass to the second round.   I'll keep you posted.

So Sunday, I had quite the planes trains and automobiles day.   The goal was to wind up at LeYeun (not Gino's, surprisingly, b/c my parents had been there like 4 days in a row or something) at 4:30.  The problem was that I left the car in Astoria b/c of alternate side parking.   I also needed to help out with the Hoboken kayaking program in the afternoon.  So, at 7AM, I took out my bike and biked over the Triborough bridge to Astoria.  I put the bike in the car, and drove to Hoboken  Then, leaving the car there, I took the Path train to Christopher Street, and ran down to Pier 26.  I volunteered at the Boathouse for a few hours, then 11 of us packed up and paddled over to Sinatra Park where we ran a free program like we do at the Boathouse all afternoon.   At 3:00, I hopped in the car, and drove into Brooklyn, where I stopped home to see Puba, and then went to the restaurant.  After dinner, I drove back home, dropped off the bike, and then drove back to Astoria to see Deirg, who had just come back from a week vacation for Sarah Danitz's wedding.  I took the subway home around 10:30 that night.   Obviously, I slept pretty well.  :)

So here I am again... at DTUT.   Its been a long week at work, and an equally long week in the dating world...   Makes me think of that George Carlin line about the "near miss."  "Near miss" would come to mind, except that Carlin is right--a "near miss" is a hit.  You see a car accident and someone says, "those two cars.. they nearly missed each other.  Good thing the roads were slippery otherwise they might have missed."  I'm tired and I just feel like relaxing on my own.  There's a married couple at the table next to me playing Scrabble.  One of the words they've spelled is "shit."  Potty mouthes!  Anyway, Sue and Fil had their annual Summer Kickoff at 13 yesterday.  I hung around for a little while.... not nearly as many people as their were last year.  Not sure why. 

There were lots of high school kids in here before...  I wish I knew about this place in high school.  I would have lived here after school on a Friday night.  There are a lot of things I know about now that I wish I knew in high school.  Did I mention that this kayaking thing is one of the best things to ever happen to me?  I feel like it makes me a lot more interesting...

"What did you do today?"

"Oh, I was kayaking on the Hudson River." 

Its also a good way to judge people... based on their response.  The kind of people I wanna hang out with think its really awesome, or they can't believe its free.  Other people say, "Isn't the water dirty?"   The water's not dirty at all...   bacteria-y, chemical-y.. maybe... but actual dirt?  I have not seen a lot of dirt floating around the water.

Alright... back to my book.  Its been a couple of weeks since my lunch with Mary...  Obviously, I'm not as optimistic about my chances that she'll be interested in publishing me now.

I had the most fantastic weekend... Friday night was the Fordham alumni boat cruise. Its funny, because everyone always asks whether or its fun or not. I never thought of anything as being fun on its own... unless its like a show or performance--something we're I'm not interacting. For an event, I really think the fun is what you make of it, and I definately made this fun. I had a great conversation with someone the entire cruise about family, careers, values, etc... it was just a very real talk, something I haven't had with someone for that long in a while. Very cool stuff. Brown and Matt came, too, which was bizzare, because they never come to anything. Anyway... the views were fantastic and so was the company. We went past the Boathouse, too, which was cool.
Speaking of the Boathouse, this kayaking thing has seriously been like the best thing to ever happen to me. I absolutely love it... I spend as much time as I can there, and look forward to it the whole week. The people who volunteer are just a great bunch of people. Its a really diverse group... and its weird. Very few people talk about what they do or where they come from, but it doesn't seem to matter. Its just this place where people have come together to have fun and facilitate other people's fun. Jeff Reals keeps saying its a cult... and it kind of is.. but its a happy cult that kayaks. If I had to choose a cult, that's the kind of cult I want to be in.
Anyway... Saturday, I was out from 8AM to 2AM... I started by going down to the boathouse to try and get on the morning trip, which I did. We went up a little past Chelsea piers with Mike and Janice and came back... neat little trip. When I got back, Andie was there. We hung out the whole day, and then added Amar and Jay to our posse and headed out after kayaking. The four of us went down to this outside bar/resteraunt down by Battery Park where they park yachts... right by the Winter Garden. We must have been there for like five hours... totally laughing our asses off the whole time. Amar is a total nutcase, and he and Andy were pretty drunk. We were inviting everyone to come down to Kayak. It was a riot. Then, we took the SI ferry at 11:30 just to see the downtown skyline... and to satisfy Andie's touresty curiousity. It turned out to be a great trip...

Sunday was fun, too, except for the part where this guy took a seizure on one of the kayaks and nearly drowned. It was totally bizzare, and scary to watch. This guy in his 40's and 50's was paddling back to the dock, when he suddenly started convulsing and bounced himself right out of the kayak and into the water face down. I screamed, "That guy is having a seizure!" Everyone had seen it... I was up at the pier eating my lunch. His friends in a double hopped off and pulled his head up, and one of the other volunteers paddled out to get him. They pulled himm out pretty quickly, and eventually he came to. I had called 911 and ran to get the ambulance, which had stopped in the wrong place a few blocks up. Scary stuff... he turned out to be ok, but I don't think I'll ever forget that image and sound of him shaking and falling in the water.

Sunday night, I had dinner with Liz, which was great. Its really nice that we're friends again, almost as if our debacle of a relationship never happened... Anyway.. this is the abridged version. The face to face story is longer, but I'm sleepy and this is long overdue as it is.

So I'm in Tampa right now visiting my brother...    Well, technically, its Brandon, FL, about 30 min east of Tampa.  He lives in one of those fake neighborhoods...  errr.. "Developments."    Every house is the same, and they have a Welcome Center and a pool.  There are lots of families and little kids.  No one goes out of the house between 10 and 4, because its 96 degrees and the sun is like 62 feet from the earth in Florida, so it feels like you're sitting in a chicken incubator.  And, because its all familes, no one goes out after dark either...   making it oh so fun for a 24 year old single guy.  Its nice seeing my brother though, and my nieces, but its 9:30, and I'm bored senseless.  I've already made 3 moves in my fantasy team today, and I've made some new blog add-ons.   I now have a Guestbook and a little comment thingy on the side...

So the foreign girl at the counter at DTUT has a boyfriend...   some greasy looking guy... sort of takes something out of our little exchanges when I get my green tea.  Oh well.

So I've had a really great Memorial Day Weekend so far.  Friday night was a long overdue cleaning of my apartment.  I threw out five big garbage bags of...  just random crap.  I seriously have issues about holding on to stuff.  When I moved out of Fordham, my desk alone produced about three for four garbage bags of stuff, which is difficult to comprehend given the mass of the desk and the known and accepted laws of phyisics.

On Saturday, I was back at the Boathouse.  The water was choppy and the wind was whipping up pretty good, but a handful of brave souls still came to kayak.  One girl took a nice flop into the water by the dock, and I pulled her out by her lifejacket like I was one of those shipping cargo cranes... up, over, and down.  Mary came down...  I don't think I mentioned Mary and Andy.   Mary is this english woman who came down last weekend for the first time.  We started talking and it turns out she works for a publishing company.  She's going to take a look at my book and everything... how do you like that for dumb luck.  Kayaking:  fun AND productive.  Anyway... she gave me her e-mail address and number.  Then, later on, another woman comes down and tells me her friend just called her and told her how much fun she had, so she had to go.  It turns out that it was Mary, and so this girl Andy and I started chatting it up.  She was incredibly cool, and after she kayaked, she actually hung out to volunteer almost the whole day.  I think she's be a lot of fun to hang out with, but I'll wait until Mary looks at my book before I make any move that might be perceived as sketchy.  You never know and can't be too careful.

Anyway, from kayaking, I went to the Big East Baseball Finals in Bridgewater, NJ.  Brian and Rich met me at the entrance to the Holland Tunnel, and I drove out to Jersey.  They had the game in an Atlantic League ballpark, which is one of those Independent minor league teams.  I'll tell you.. it was such an enjoyable experience--$8 tickets, $2 for parking.  I'd easily go back again.  Brian's brother Jimmy was there with his wife.  I swear, Jimmy makes me laugh more than any other person I've ever met.  Something about the dryness and deadpan delivery I just find endlessly amusing.  His wife asks him where the bathrooms are... and its a dinky little stadium where everything is like two feet away, and he goes, "Its on the Concourse Level."   Hysterical.

Anyway, after the game, I hung out with Anna...   everyone else pretty much left for the weekend, so Anna and I were left to chill Saturday night and Sunday.  Saturday night we... painted.  It was bizzare.   She doesn't have any brushes or canvas, so she just paints on cardboard.  She can be so weird sometimes, but I guess it was cool.  We had nice conversation and it was just good company.  I left and came back the next morning for a random roadtrip.  We just decided we were going to go on a driving adventure, and somehow, that turned out to be a search for my grandmother's old country house in Greenwood Lake.  I drove up 17, and somehow I found it.  It was really strange being up there, because everything seemed so much smaller than I remember it--meaning I was obviously pretty small the last time I was up there.  Two different people had occupied the house since we sold it about ten years ago, but it was kept up very well.  When I got up there, I called my grandmother to tell her were I was and she got a little choked up.  Still, she was really glad to hear that the house had been kept in such good condition.

What was really disappointing, though, was when we walked down to the beach on the lake.  There was this little pier that they built about 20 years ago when I was younger and they put in sand behind it.  It was small but cute.  As we walked down the stairs to get there, it was obvious that they hadn't been kept up, but I wasn't prepared for how bad the beach was.  It was in total disrepair, like it hadn't been touched in that long.  The deck and pier is collapsing into the water, and all the sand is gone, with weeds overgrowing the concrete.  It was really sad to see...   makes me wonder what happened.  The raft we used to swim out to was gone, and it looked like part of it was sunken on the far side of the deck.  Anna took some pictures, but I don't think I'll be showing them to my grandmother.  I'm curious to figure out what happened and when.

Anyway, before we hit the house, we stopped at a marina.  Turns out that a pontoon boat rental is only like $150 for three hours...   The whole time we were there, we were thinking that it would be cool to come up here for a few days with a group of people, and it wouldn't cost that much money. 

After the Lake, we headed out towards Warwick, but on our way, we passed Wawayanda, which is this state park that has a beach.  I went with my grandparents a few times and I have pretty vivid memories of it.  We ate lunch at the beach and then we rented a rowboat.  I don't know if she just timed the current wrong or what, but Anna had quite a struggle with the rowing.  :)   

From Wawayanda, we went to a Farmer's Market in Warwick.  They had good icecream, and we stopped to watch the farm animals they had in their corral.  They had a goat and some sheep, and some baby goats as well.  I think that might have been the highlight of our trip.  Anna's got some good pictures, but I don't know how to post them.  If I figure it out, I'll put them up. 

Anyway, after we headed home at about 3...  but made a stop off at the Cross County Mall.  I went 4 for 4 on things I had to buy...  swim shorts, nice sandles, work shoes, and those wet sock things that you wear in the water. When I got home, I went for a run and to the gym... putzed around...   and now, I'm at DTUT, procrastinating on writing up some more material for my Tuesday lunch with Mary the publishing woman.

So I'm a terrible blogger... but, if I'm going to keep this up, I need to just keep writing. There's a part of you, when you fall behind, that thinks, "Well, I'm already behind, so I'll just put if off more." I don't want to be that guy.

So last weekend, I had a fantastic time at the Downtown Boathouse. www.downtownboathouse.org

I went down both Saturday and Sunday mornings. They have free kayaking on the Hudson by Pier 26 (Canal Street)... its so cool and the people who volunteer are so nice. I think the best part of it is that the kayakers are so excited over the novelty of the whole thing. They come out and they've had such a good time. They're thanking you for volunteering and helping to make their experience possible. Its great to be around people when they're in such a good mood... kinda rubs off on you. I think I'd like to make it a point of going every Saturday and Sunday in the mornings. Anyway... I'll be at DTUT tonight and blog more later...

Ok, so I'll break from the California catchup to report on the present moment. Its another bizzare night of people watching at DTUT. First off, on my way here, I watched a couple part ways after a date at the doorstep of the women's apartment building. I overheard her say, "Do you want to come up or are you tired?" Please woman... he either wants to come up or he's a unic. Funny enough, he didn't actually go up. I wanted to turn around and smack that guy on the back of the head and say, "Dude... what are you doing???" He was kind of a dorky guy, too... not likely to get this opportunity in the near term from what I can tell. Ah well. Now I'm at the cafe... with my back to the woman singing and playing guitar. She sounds ok, but she has the most ridiculously bland lyrics I've ever heard. She was singing some nonsense about being in Paris before... total dribble. There are three foreigners at the table, and a couple. I'm at the head. The foreigners--I can't tell if they're all together. The girl across from me is a fox... she's talking to a guy... they have accents, but I can't tell what kind, b/c of this guitarist drolling on about an apron. The girl with them, who chimes in every now and then is typing away on a laptop. She's quite unattractive... in fact, its like a spectrum of physical appearence. The guy, in the middle, is pretty non-descript. I keep trying to catch the girl across from me with some eye contact, but she's really enthralled in this accented conversation with the other two. Ah well.
I had a great meeting the other day with a Regis alumni. I ran the alumni database again for publishing people, and I came up with a guy who was a CFO for a publishing company. He rang me after I e-mailed him and was willing to stop in the GM office to chat. Turns out that it was his last day at this firm--he was going to be working out on Long Island in a different industry. Fantastic timing. Anyway, he gave me some great advice about getting my name out and associating it with my topic before I push harder on the actual book itself. He said my problem was that I was trying to write a good book, which isn't the way to get one published. So anyway, I went to a great website that he suggested would help me find some ways to get my thoughts on the subject into the media: www.mediabistro.com. Its got lots of really helpful articles about how to freelance for different magazines. They're also doing an event that would give me a chance to pitch to some literary agents that I signed up for. Also, from that, I found a site for the Young Professionals of New York City. Its like a professional society for young people in their 20's... interesting stuff. I signed up... they do lots of social and career events in the city and seem to have a good member base. I'll keep you posted on how that goes. Anyway... I need to go scouring the internet for writing opportunities related to career development. More on California and my new baseball team later...

OK.. So this is waaaaaaay overdue and its not even done, but I've been so busy the last two weeks. I'll write more this week, and catch everyone up on baseball, GM softball's first game, and the rest of my life... for now, here's the first half of the California trip... I'm such a bad blogger.

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So I’m writing this blog on a plane coming back to New York from San Francisco. I definitely need to recap what has been an exciting and productive trip to the West Coast. In fact, I was so busy, this is the first opportunity I’ve had to write about it and I had been there since Sunday.

I left Sunday afternoon after doing the MS Walk and going out to lunch for Deirg’s birthday. Probably the most amusing part of this story has to do with the rental car that I got while out there. First off, let me give you a little background surrounding the car. Charles (my boss) and I had meetings to go to on Tuesday and Wednesday, so we planned on sharing the car while out there because we would be travelling together. I went a day early to hang out with some friends from high school, so it was up to me to get the car. Upon realizing last week that I would be out there first, and that he would have to travel in whatever I was going to rent, Charles says to me, “Oh… wait. You’re probably going to rent some kind of guido car aren’t you?” Admittedly, I did rent a Mustang convertible (in spite of the GM only policy) when I went to ILPA last year. “Oh no, we’re not having any of that. Get a Caddy.” So Maddy makes the reservation and I’m all signed up to get a DeVille, which has its own Pimp My Ride quality to it, so I didn’t entirely mind. (especially when you drive around blasting some of the XM techno stations.)

So I get to the rental place at 7:45 (10:45 NY time) and I’m pretty tired. They tell me to go to spot K-9 to get a white DeVille. I go to the spot, throw my stuff in the car and drive out, but not before stopping at the get so the guy can check my car and my contract. So I’m driving along and the whole time I’m thinking, “Wow, this is pretty chintzy interior for a Caddilac. I can’t believe anyone pays fifty grand for this thing.” So I get to the hotel and the valet parks it in the garage downstairs. PS… I really hate the whole valet concept, as well as the coat check concept. Maybe my tastes and service expectations having grown up in Brooklyn are too low brow, but the idea that I have to give someone two bucks for something that I can very easily do myself is ridiculous. Its like a little tax for having a car or a coat. Plus, with the car and the hotel, I’m someone who finds themselves coming in and out several times in a day, making the valet proposition pretty expensive. Anyway… upon getting a second wind, I called up Pastore, who I went to Regis with and is now at Stanford Law, to see if he wanted to hang out. He invited me over to the campus and so I went downstairs to get the car. The valet pulls up in a big white Buick. Amused at how he could easily confuse the two cars, I pretty smugly laugh and say, “Umm.. wrong car. I have a Caddy.” The valet looks at me like I have three heads and says, “Sir… this is definitely the car you drove up in.” So I look and there’s the little Avis keychain and the newspaper that was on the front seat. It was definitely the car I drove in. I couldn’t believe it.

What makes this so unbelievable is the sequence of events that made this possible. One, is the fact that it was on my mind that I was getting a Caddy, and so how I ever walked up to that spot and didn’t notice that there was a Buick Park Avenue sitting in the spot is beyond me. And its not like I don’t know cars. I just went to the car show last week, and I’m a GM employee for crying out loud. Ok, so maybe I can chalk that up to jet lag. The real surprise is how I even got out of the parking lot with the car. I definitely had a contract for a Caddy, and my contract definitely didn’t match the car I was driving. So what exactly did that guy in the little booth check? I mean… he looked at the contract, and looked at the car, but that’s all he did was look. There was definitely no reading and certainly no cognition on his part. (Nice.. we’re landing in a half hour. Jeff Barman is also on the plane with me, btw… he’s out like a light.) Then, on top of that, not once when I was ripping on the crappy interior did it occur to me that I wasn’t actually in a Caddy. Amazing and extrordinarily embarrassing. I must have looked like a complete idiot to that valet.

So, Monday morning, I head back to the airport to switch the cars. Problem solved. Interior: Much nicer. J After calling in to my group’s Monday morning meeting, I went for a run on the Stanford campus. I don’t think I’ve seen so many people biking around in one place. It was kind of nice—definitely very different than I’m used to. Lately, I’ve had the growing sense that I should be going somewhere that is different—that I should mix it up a little bit from what I’m used to, which is why I’m leaning towards Stanford over a Northwestern or Harvard. Granted I haven’t even taken the GMATs yet, but, well, failure is not an option.

For lunch, I went out with Valarie Cooper and Alissa Douglas from CM Capital. I met Valarie at ILPA in Toronto. She’s one of the many great people I’ve met through ILPA. I don’t know if its buy side people, private equity people, or maybe just my own discerning aura, but I seem to meet a lot of really nice people in this industry. Even some, albeit some, of the investment bankers I’ve met have been somewhat reasonable human beings. She’s been icredibly helpful, and she introduced me to Alissa, who is an analyst at CM that just graduated from Stanford. We talked on the phone previously and she told me all about her decision process and the application. Both were highly amused by the Buick Story.

That night, I went to the Giants-Padres game at SBC park with Pastore and Christ Cutul. It was a bit drizzly, but otherwise, it was great. We got tix six rows up from the field down the left field like—about 90 feet from Barry Bonds. Barry also lauched a homer off David Wells to top it off. Its so funny how, when you’re watching two teams you don’t really care about, your main interest becomes padding your fantasy baseball stats. I was happy that Bonds hit another home run, but not so happy that it came off of Boomer. At the end of the game, it was 4-1 going into the 9th and Matt Herges get totally screwed out of a save. He gets two outs and puts a guy on. All of the sudden, there’s activity in the bullpen. What?? This guy is your closer, why is anyone warming? Where’s the confidence? Marquis Grissom boots a shallow fly ball that would have ended the inning. Two more hits and Herges is gone, all with two outs. How's he supposed to gain any confidence if he looks out onto the OF grass (which is where bullpen is) and sees two guys up throwing. Once you put your closer in, you leave him in. He should be the last man out of the bullpen. Case closed. I was pissed.

Anyway, Tuesday was extremely hectic. We had five meetings set up, and I ran Charles ragged. He said he didn’t get much sleep the night before, and Tuesday nearly killed him. First, we went to breakfast at Il Forniao, which I suppose is the center of all activity in Palo Alto. It was at that point that I realized that I was grossly overdressed. I don’t think anyone has a tie within a 50 mile radius of that place. Oh well. Our first meeting was at Mayfield Partners, a top tier firm that we would definitely like to work with in some capacity, whether we are doing deals with them or as an LP in their fund. One of our other GPs made an introduction for us, so we were lucky to meet one of the main guys there, Kevin Fong as well as their CFO. These are the guys that backed 3Com, Citrix, Amgen, etc. It looks like they have a good core there, as two of the main guys are still there, and a partner at Focus said that there’s a third that is a great up and comer. I thought the meeting went well. Charles did most of the speaking, obviously. In fact, I was pretty lucky to be at the meeting at all, as private equity analysts go. At 24, GM gets me into a lot of things that not a lot of other analysts my age get exposed to. Kevin was a lot more like I conceptualized VCs to be than most of the people I’ve met. He had trendy spiked up hair and an electronic notepad on the back of his laptop. You could just tell he was all about the technology. I think if you’re investing in this stuff, you have to be playing with it on your own time as well, which is why I think Steve Jobs has such a great handle on what consumers will go for at this point in time.

Mayfield had a couple of deals that they suggested we take a look at, because of our connection to GM. In fact, we’ve seen a lot of deals over the past few years from people wanting inroads into the corporation. Because of that, we’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to make those connections, not just for companies we invest in, but for ourselves, so we can get a window on how a huge enterprise spends its technology dollar.

After Mayfield, we went to visit DotEdu, a seed stage fund recommended to us by David Hornick from August. That was a very different experience—no marble floors at this place. This was a bare bones office with dry erase boards full of ideas. Now I felt even more out of place in a suit. Their story was an interesting one and Charles finally got his Google question answered. The partners of this fund had great inroads into west coast university technologies, and one of the parters even taught the Google guys when they were grad students. Charles wanted to know who really drove the success of that company and how much of factor the two VC’s, Kleiner and Sequioa, were, and how they got into the company. I don’t want to give the answer here, but let’s just say this team’s insights made us think that we really discovered an opportunity going forward. One notable quote from the meeting came from Naval Ravikant, who used to work with David at August. He said that it has become so much less expensive to fund a great technology partner—between acquiring talent, outsourcing programming, manufacturing, etc—that he said that most funds are too large based on what companies really need in terms of financing.

For lunch, I finally got to meet up with David Hornick. David and I had exchanged a few comments on the blog that he writes along with a few other VCs: www.ventureblog.com, and he was nice enough to agree to come out to lunch with me and Charles. Should you ever meet him, you need to get him to recite scenes from The Princess Bride. I don’t know how that’s useful in the VC world, but who cares. Anyway, he’s a very down to earth guy and should prove to be a reasonable voice in this bizzare little world VCs have put together. I hope he succeeds in finding his blowout deal.

To be continued…

The Jesuit Outcasts are now in sole possession of first place in the Bubba Strike's Back Fantasy Baseball League. All is now right with the world.

So it looks like, in the real world, I'll be joining a baseball team afterall. The Bisons disbanded, because the coach was a flake and just dropped the ball with the whole team. So I e-mailed the commish and the following exchange occurred:

Hey Gerard,

Its Charlie O'Donnell... I came down to your batting practice and you recommended me for Nelson's team. That turned out to be a disappointment. After two practices, he seemed to give up and he's not going to have a team. Its a shame too, because it seemed like he had a few pitchers and infielders who could play... maybe a few guys to build a team around. I called him up and his answer was, "Guys aren't calling me back." That didn't make any sense, because it seemed like the crew he had at the practices was pretty enthusiastic... I think he just decided he didn't want to coach. So now, I'm back to square one. Are there any other teams in this league still looking for players? After the two practices, I got pretty excited about playing again, so you can imagine how frustrating this is now. Let me know if you have any more leads?

Thanks,

Charlie

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Then I get this e-mail:
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Charlie my name is Joseph Fastaia and I am the manager for the Brooklyn Dodgers that plays in the UBBL league. Gerard forwarded your email to me and I was interested in what you said. I have a team of 13 players right now. I am looking for 4 more guys. I have 1 trying out tonight infact. I can tell you right now, you want to play ball, that's all I need to hear for people to be on my team. I do not care if they are not the greatest, if they love to play, that's good enough for me. I am so cocky that I believe I will bring the best I can out of that person and give them new heights for the game. If you are interested you can email me back and we can set up a date for me to look at you as well as tell you more about my team.
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My response:
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Sounds great...

Here's my info:
I turning 25 in July work in midtown and live in the city, but my job is very flexible and I have car, so I can almost guarantee that I can make most, if not all, the games. Actually, I can drive into Brooklyn tomorrow morning if that works for you, but I have to be somewhere at 12. Then, I'm in San Fran from Sunday until Wednesday and I'm free after that.

Baseballwise, I catch and play outfield. I have a good arm, but with some accuracy issues, which is the only reason I don't pitch. At the plate, I'm basically a contact #2 type hitter... not too much pop, just line drives and walks, but we'll see how that plays out in practice. I'm definately not a flashy player, but I'm good over the long run. The one thing I can guarantee is that I can outhustle any guy you have on your team. Call my cell if you'd like to meet up tomorrow morning somewhere. If not, I'll have to meet you later next week or next weekend.

Charlie
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You gotta love that... Throwing down the gauntlet: " I can guarantee is that I can outhustle any guy you have on your team."
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I love your spunk. I have not met you but I can tell you I would like you to be on my team. There is one problem about tomorrow I have to work, but I am having a practice next Friday the 23rd at 5pm at Marine Park. Your age is right around ours. We are a bunch a guys that want to play just like you, that's why I feel your a prefect fit for this team. Position wise, I need a catcher but outfield is already filled up because everyone on my team can play everywhere. So more then likely your going to catch, but play other positions because its going to be hard to have everyone down at once. The price is 360. Jersey is included, plus umpire fees and registration. Baseball pants and hats your on your own because I feel you gotta feel right in them and instead of buying a whole bunch of cheap ones that everyone does not feel good in. Once you pay, you pay and that's it. I look forward from hearing from you and like I said before 4 more guys I want and I see you as one of them and you will love this team because we have fun and we will win.

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You hear that, folks... I got spunk. Spunk me, baby. So now, I'm a Dodger.

I think one of the most useful skills I've developed over my lifetime is the ability to wake up early--like ridiculously early. This morning, I walked out of my house at 6AM to come to work, and now, at 7:10, I've been pounding away, running reports, spreadsheets, etc. for our veture review. I'm the ultimate last minute guy, and I can't tell you how many times in college that I would wake up at 6 to finish papers for 9:30 classes. I'd much rather do that than stay up late. When I stay up late, with each passing minute, I get slower and slower. Often times in school, I would quit at midnight and then just wake up six hours later to do something, fully refreshed and that much more efficient.

That's why I think this whole Stanford thing will work out with GM. (Should I actually get in for next year.) I really think I can work from 6-9 on GM stuff each day, coordinating with NY time, and get a lot done, and not interrupt my grad work. Maybe I'm smoking dope, but I just can't conceive of a situation where I can't put in 15-20 hours a week doing something else. In fact, I think I'll need to, because I need distraction. I had a great conversation with an analyst from CM Capital the other day about Stanford and grad school in general. She said first term was really time consuming, but that's about the only point where she didn't have a lot of extra time to do other things, and a lot of that was because of classes she should have worked to pass out of like statistics. We'll see, I suppose.

This is probably politically incorrect, but... .well... I don't really care so much, I still think its a good idea that solves a problem.

While biking around the city yesterday (I rode about 19 miles), I came up with an idea. Its become apparent to me that homeless people and street performers need to get in on this Mobil Speedpass-like technology. Imagine if you had a little keyfob with a button on it that was connected to your bank account. You see someone asking for money on the street, and all you have to do is press the little button, and 25 cents instantly drops into their account, or on a smart card, if they don't have an account. What happens sometimes is that people, rightly or wrongly, don't want to step out of a crowd to put money in a hat or jar or whatever they're collecting in. They feel embarrassed, or in the case of some of the more troubled looking homeless, simply don't want to get too close to them. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't have an issue with this myself, but I think I'm objectively observing the opinions of the average NYC passerby. I don't think that all of the people who walk on by are cold hearted and often times I feel like they probably want to give something, but something prevents them. Maybe they don't want to break out their wallet on a crowded city street. Maybe they honestly don't have any change.

Think about it. You could set the button to determine exactly how much you want to give, and set limits over a given time span... let's say a dollar a day or something. All you would need to do is point and click your little key fob at the person you want to give to, and its done... anonymously if you want.

From the perspective of the collector, its a huge improvement in efficiency. First off, it makes their money more secure. You could keep the money on a smart card with a pin number. Should they lose the card or get it stolen, only they would know the pin to get access, and they could have it replaced quickly. No more need to worry about getting ripped off by other homeless people.

Also, it increases the number of potential collection hours. When people are sleeping on the street late at night and someone walks by them, that's when the passerby often feels the worst for them. Yet, they never give, because... well... how are you going to give them anything? Are you going to put the spare change on the person when they're sleeping? Certainly you wouldn't wake them up to give them money. This is a prime collection opportunity that they are missing out on.

It also solves the problem of knowing where the money is going. You could set up the smart card so it is only able to purchase certain items, like food, clothes, or shelter. Items like alcohol would be prohibited.

Now, of course, the plan is not without its hitches. If there were other people carrying smart cards, you wouldn't want someone else stepping into your beam and stealing the quarter. Plus, there are people like my friend Grace who just think the idea is stupid. Surely, they will have to be further educated with a more convincing argument. I think the whole thing would work pretty well. Of course, making a business out of it, taking a small percentage of all of these tiny transactions, might prove someone difficult. Maybe you could just make it a non-profit endeaver and just get philanthropic money to pay for it.

Yes... these are the kind of things that go through my head when I ride my bike.

I have to say... I'm slowly understanding the desire to deliver the big deal. More and more over the past two years, beginning with my work on some pretty large secondary portfolios, I've been working more directly on the investment side than the portfolio analysis and reporting side. Last month, I basically ran with a buyout co-investment and managed the whole process with the team, since the two PMs on the deal were in San Fran and London when the work was being done. Now, a late stage venture deal that I think is pretty interesting has come across my plate and I'm itching to see it through--but not just see it though, but to introduce to company to GM and every single direct investment we have in our portfolio. I'm excited about the possibility of really driving the value creation in something and I see the allure of being a GP and doing this whole networking thing. I won't deny that it doesn't pique my interest, even though I've been saying that working on partnerships--and assessing other people's investment strategy is much more interesting to me. Its interesting, but probably not as exciting.

Along those same lines, Marcy and I are going to be out on the west coast knocking on the doors of some of these hard to get into venture firms. Some of them we actually have good connections to, but other ones... its basically like cold calling. And yet, we don't even know if these are the groups we want to get into. Half the time, its word of mouth, or evidence from one big deal. It will be my second business trip out to the west coast... the first being the LA ILPA conference couple with some visits to some consumer focused buyout firms. However, it will be the first big step in this whole Stanford plan I've got--the idea being that I'd go out to grad school in Fall '05 and perhaps source, or at least track, venture deals for GM (or whatever entity we'll be by the time that happens) while I'm out there. I haven't been out to the Bay Area on business before--hopefully it will be a foreshadowing of things to come.

So I pose this question: "Can a Friend Guy ever be a Guy Guy?"

What is it that makes a guy fit into, or fall out of, the catagory of potential date. See, men are different. For men, if we are single, any single female that we are hanging out with has the potential, at least at first, to be a potential date. There's never a question of whether or not a guy who asks you out is actually interested in dating you. But for girls, you never really know. You can be doing all of the dating type stuff... showing interest, asking them out, etc... and they'll seemlingly go along with the whole thing, until the point that you're sitting across from them and you realized, "Hey... wait a second... this isn't a date at all!"

I think we should all wear some kind of color coded clothing. Like, we all wear green if we're available for a date, or on a date. This way, when you show up to pick the girl up, and you're wearing green and she's not, you can say, "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought this was something else. My bad." People in relationships, they could wear red... you know, like for "stop." This way, you don't chat with someone for a 1/2 hour and then suddenly have them drop the b-bomb on you that they have a boyfriend.

That's not to say that people aren't worth just being friends with. They totally are, and there are some people I'd love to spend more time with, no matter what the kind of relationship--I just want it to be clear what people are getting into at the start.

Some guys would always get green shirted girls... like my college suitemate. I swear, he could be buying sneakers and he's come out of it with the phone number of some chick--a customer, clerk, or both. Me... I practically have to keep reminding people that I am, in fact, an actual male. Who knew that paying attention to women, showing a little care, and being courteous would make them confuse you for another woman? Maybe that's why I seem to have better luck with lesbians. Weird.