it's a venti world after all (with whipped cream on top)

ethno-eccentric@satchmo's

got picked up by the office black car very early monday morning to head to west new york (which is part of new jersey strangely) to hop on to another car, shauna's. after 2 hours driving over the jersey turnpike, over a nice discussion on wedding plans (hers not mine), we found ourselves at the client's headquarters in pennsylvania.

we met with the client. presented a total of 19 storyboards. quite a task coz i had to read through all them (and not to mention put on my best acting smiley selling face throughout). but quite fun and a good change of pace nonetheless. client bought off on 6 storyboards and those concepts get taken to the next level.

had lunch at their huge office cafeteria. the food was good and cheap (coz it's subsidized) but it was quite eerie. not my usual world, seeing everyone looking quite corporate. well it was a corporate headquarters. and besides i was looking quite corporate too with my slacks, leather shoes and shirt, plus portfolio in hand (except of course my shirt wasnt pressed and later in the day i realized i had a quite embarrasing hole in my pants which hopefully no one noticed).

was a great trip to pennsylvania. nice change of scenery. lots of space. lots of glass and cubicles and suits. a different world indeed.

by monday night, i was in an altogether different world. found myself at satchmo's, the friendly neighborhood cafe. still had the slacks and leather shoes but i lost the long-sleeved shirt and wore a faded tee instead.

ethno-eccentric, a guitar, violin, cello trio was playing. very nice lively (bit strange) balkan music. it was a very laid-back cozy atmosphere, as though you were at a friend's living room. band jamming, people sipping their smoothies, a couple smooching in the corner, i enjoying my veggie burger and the nice bottle of red wine on the house. nice nice. felt as though i was again being taken to a different world altogether. i could've sworn there were some belly dancers but i guess there weren't really any. mustve been the music. or the booze.

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with winter slowly losing its grip, ive been able to take my bike all over the place again. last night was through the abandoned nighttime factories of industrial brooklyn and the 2 big cemeteries of queens. (not the best place to be biking at night obviously but hey i survived not being chopped up in any factory and thrown at the cemetery, plus it was great exercise.) the weekend was a trip through the brownstones of brooklyn and the diversity known as the lower east side. this weekend's weather should be great. cant wait to see what new worlds i could cover and discover. but hopefully, no frozen ears and dripping snot this time. (did i just say frozen ears?)

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guess the flag

after overcoming my acquired newyawker a*holeness and filipino shyness, i finally introduced myself to the new hire who's sat right next to me for a week now. turns out tatianya's actually been all over. she's lived in san francisco, budapest (me still being not the most geographic in the world had to google that one), and utrecht (now that one i know coz ive been there once, and il cone's bro and el4ra's twin bro as well live there).

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in meeting more different people and seeing more places or simply hearing about them, more and more i realize it's not really a small world after all. as much as disney would like to claim that it is, and as much as friendster allows us to realize that so and so who now lives in so and so is actually the friend of so and so whos dating kevin bacon, it's really a huge world out there with tons of different things to discover, and different people to encounter.

the great mark twain once said, "twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by things you didnt do than by the ones you did. so throw off the bowlines. sail away from the safe harbor. catch the trade winds in your sails. explore. dream. discover."

screw biking. im learning sailing.