Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Slacking on getting info from people. Let's pick this up

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Utter Chaos. That is what Times Square is during New Years is.

The Beginning

It was 3ish when we made our way through the streets of 46th and up. Many of the people were battling to get into the side street that led the way to the pens. It wasn't too crowded but you could tell that once everyone made it to the pen, you'd be neck and neck with everyone else.

We had 11 people in all and were constantly battling to stick together. We made it at 47th street I believe, and ran into the side street. We were finally able to walk a bit and take our time to reach the pen, however just when we reached the end and the police allowed people through the barrier, we were fighting just to stand! We were getting shoved against the people ahead of us by people in the back who were leaning forward so far that they were at a 45 degree angle on people's back. Somehow I was shoved through the police barrier after 5 minutes of getting crunched. Susie has a nice butt by the way. I was being shoved against her with Teresa on my back. Best 5 minutes of that whole entire 2006. Rawr.

The Pig Pen

We were finally in the pen. It really was like a pen for pigs. Both ends were seperated by Police barriers for that entire large block. We gradually made our way past the halfway mark of that pen. We were once again neck and neck with people. The group of us had managed to stick together despite the craziness. It was so crowded that while I was at first with Cindy and Susie, we had weaved so that they were at the front of our 11 person line and I was in the back. For about an hour I couldn't talk to them. We managed to get close to the side pen which allowed people to leave the pen but would have to stay gone if they had left. We formed a little circle and played taboo. P.O.D. and My Chemical Romance played above us.

To my left were people from Pittsburgh who were commenting on the Steelers game. For the first hour, they were talking about how a friend told them the Steelers had lost their game. Then the two old women decided to smoke for a bit. Fun.. I get to breathe it in. They were an interesting outspoken group. The two women who were smoking started to complain about being thirsty and not being able to get water. I gave them the water bottle I had in my pocket that I didn't feel like drinking anytime soon.

Lost and Found

As we pushed our way to the front, I lost track of my umbrella. I turned around and yelled out, "Hey, I lost an umbrella back there. It's small and has a crooked handle!" Some white guy with a pierced eyebrow found it and handed it over to me through the crowd. Haha Could not believe it was so close yet so far away.

Emo Taboo

Before we went to Times Square we bought Taboo. We ended up playing Taboo. Taboo is funny since it brings out the perversion of the guys. "Dick! Penis! Vagina!" while we're surrounded by strangers. It's funny that a few people around us said "Oh, they're playing taboo". We stopped a few times to listen to Christina Aguilera, P.O.D., and My Chemical Romance as they prepared for their shows later in the day. It was so Emo, Kiet started to cut himself. Haha no, but it was way too emo standing there listening to emo music. Even the crowd felt emo and wanted to cut themselves. Either it was the song or having to listen to it 4 times each song that night.

Hourly Countdowns

Starting at 8, we started doing countdowns for all the areas that were reaching the midnight mark in different time zones. Small fireworks would light up the night and people would give out a little hurrah.  Christina and Tony told me, Teresa and Jimmy that the small disco ball under the Target sign was the actual ball that drops at NY. I thought they were lying. I thought it was on the other building where it looked like a ball was caged. Not to mention it was larger.

The Human Traffic Cone

There was this guy dressed up in orange and looked like a giant traffic cone. He was about 6 foot 5 and had a big beer gut. As we made our way to the front, I made my way to the left of him. He was damned annoying. There was a group of people who wanted to leave the pen. As they made their way past him, he totally blocked their way and told them to stop shoving him. What a dick. So there I was, standing next to him. He kept shifting his weight and bumping me to the left for about a half hour. I decided to turn myself sideways so my back was to him. He decided to turn sideways as well so that his gut was right against my back. God damn guy continued to keep bumping me another half hour. He decided to shove me by rotating a bit and then grabbed my shoulders and told me to stop sleeping in a friendly way but I could totally see through it. He was getting annoyed by me leaning back and pushing him back so he'd stop shoving me. After that little scene, the bumping stopped.

City Chinese (pronounced Shitty Chinee)

Around 10, this group of three chinese people started to cut between the group. I don't know how they did it but it was my and kiet separated from the rest of the group. Two were guys who wore blue puffy jackets. The girl was at the front making her way across. I got annoyed by this so  I decided to pretend I was dancing to the music. I cut one of the guys in blue off from the other two by wiggling my shoulders through and gradually stepping into the gap. For a full half hour this guy was totally cut off. Damn right. Back at you, you damned asians.

Boy in Blue, Bag on Butt

I gave up on it later on when I decided to regroup with the group and cutting across them to Zon and the rest. Somehow the girl and the guy in blue managed to once again get between me and the group. The girl pressed against Zon's back. From what he told me later, he was leaning back and had farted with her on his back. Haha. The other guy in blue that I had cut off had managed to get behind me. I guess as revenge, he pressed a bag against my ass the whole time. It annoyed me so much I turned to my left and saw some russian guy who I thought owned the bag. I told him to stop pressing the bag against my ass. He said, "I don't own a bag". I replied, "No really, stop that". I grabbed the bag and turned to my right to see the jackass in blue. I told him to stop that and apologized to the guy on my left twice. Fucking asian guy in blue. He didn't listen to what i said so I grabbed the bag again and moved it away from my ass. He stopped there after.

Umbrella-owned

The girl and guy were still ahead of me oblivious to their friend being cut off from them. I decided to use the umbrella's handle which had a curve at the end and poking her really hard right between the ass cheeks. Yes, that's right. She gave a startled jerk and a few minutes later, moved further left away from our group. Success! In the end we were 4 people back from the police barrier. Oh well.

Safety

We all huddled back together. A few times, Zon would sit down on the ground. I thought it was because he was tired of standing but in actuality he was farting. Haha.

At 11ish a little boy several people away from me on my left decided to take a piss on the ground. The parents took a bunch of the scarves that was thrown into the crowd and the kid peed on it. Ew. Glad it was further away but I rethought tying my shoes.

Do you know what time it is?

When it was finally the final countdown for the New Year, I totally didn't realize what time it was. Since we were doing countdowns every hour on the hour, I thought it was 11 and we were counting down for the people who lived an hour ahead of NY. So as the tiny ball that I thought Christina and Tony were lying about, disappeared from view and the song New York, New York by Frank Sinatra played throughout the square, I wondered why everyone was celebrating so hardcore about it. Confetti rained from the sky and I sat there wondering if it was 11PM or midnight.

God... what a way to ring in the New Year

The end

The Beginning
A haphazard plan to go to Times Square in NY started in September and completed just a couple of days ago. Kiet, Zon, Cindy, Susie, and I headed up to New York at 5 in the morning on Saturday. I fully expected a 5 hour trip with a pit stop to fill up on gas. In reality, it took us 3.5 hours and about 70% of my gas. My GPS was funky but managed to bring us to NY in one piece.

Christina's

We made it to Christina's house with all of my occupants in the car awake surprisingly. We were in Long Island at Christina's house off of Jerusalem avenue. She wasn't kidding about the large population of Jews in the Long Island area as many houses favored a Menora rather than a nativity scene. We rested and headed down to Kissame Blvd. to meet up Jimmy and Teresa who came down to NY by bus. We ate Chicken Kebobs off a street vendor which was amazingly delicious. We went to hotpot afterwards at a restaraunt nearby. Each of us had a personal pot to boil our food in placed within the table itself. It was a very well ventilated place with vents on top of every table. Only problem was the water that dripped onto Kiet. (A good business to start in the Andover area )
Karaoke

We walked around town searching for a Karaoke place. The first place we went to, the karaoke place was unsuccessful with a waiting time of 2 hours. The second place only featured Chinese music. (And a really spooky third floor). We walked and walked but decided to forego on karaoke and head back to Christina's house. We came back and played cards. Tony came back from CT and slept.

Christina's Parents

Christina's parents kept us so well fed that Kiet never got a chance to finish his sub that he made Saturday morning. I also gained two pounds from the trip. Oh well, didn't really expect to continue with a weight loss during holiday season.

Times Square

Times square was so crazy, I'll write a separate entry on that.

(Taboo, lost umbrella, Pittsburgh fans, POD, My chemical romance, Christina Aguilera, Orange Traffic Cone dude, Umbrella butt poke, getting shoved into the crowd, Japanese girls, the drop, the pain, oh the pain.)

Diner

Afterwards we ate at a diner that had an awesome twin cheeseburger meal that filled me up. No wonder I gained 2 pounds from the trip.

Monday

Plans to go see Stomp went down the drain as we were pretty exhausted from Times Square. We attempted to go to Target to get poker chips but using my GPS and searching for Target Gas Station, we ended up near Hemp Lake on Hempstead Ave. without a Target Gas station in sight. Ok... poker chips no go. Headed back to Christina's to chill as Teresa and Jimmy headed back to Boston and Tony left for CT. We watched Boondock Saints which makes a great movie to drink to since they said Fuck every single second. Sometimes several times in a second. Great movie though.

Tuesday

Slept at 1am, woke up at 8:30. Headed back to Boston at 10 and made it back at 1:30. Went over to Mike's and chilled. I slept mostly until 6:30. Went back home and done!

Happy New Year

At work, we have a basketball hoop given to us by the SVP when we need to pass the time or need to relax. This past Christmas, he gave us a fooseball table as well. We just played on it and my team won 10-9. I played defense.

Which reminds me of when I went to NY for a New Years Celebration with the family when my brother worked in Manhattan back in 2001. We went to the company quarters when everyone was away. There was a fooseball table there as well and my dad challenged me to a game. I'm thinking, "Dad... do you even know what fooseball is?" We played and in 5 minutes tops, he had beaten me 10-0.

He chuckled afterwards and told me that in the Army he had played fooseball with his friends often and was one of the best there.

Now how's that for something I never knew about my dad before.

So what is this? My second post in a day? I haven't done that in years. It's been awhile since I've been so fired up. Fired up about writing on xanga? No, Fired up with doing something with my life.

As hackneyed as it is, I don't want to live a life of "what-ifs". At the top of my head, I can think "what if my parents weren't so strict with me having a girlfriend when I was younger?" (Which is funny now since my parents are now beginning the "Vinh, you should think of marriage" phase. )

But let's be honest, as hackneyed as that phrase is, how often do people look back on their past years and think how much they've could've done. Have you ever dreamed of having invested in Microsoft stock when you were younger or more recently the Google stock that shot up from 15 dollars per share to 470+ dollars per share? (Just multiply what you invested by 31... scary rich)

Sure, I have alot of what-if's still lying around in my head over the past year despite my proactiveness. My life was being sorted out and my other options were secondary to it. Now that I have it sorted out, what will I do to "kick it up a notch" (as Emeril says). I don't think of it as a "New Year's Resolution" but my road that I'm creating for myself. That Dang Road. (I need a better named road.)

A year ago, I would have written a blog entry lamenting the lost opportunities or friendships in my life. Sure I still lament, but I want to feel alive and more "hardcore" (a word I like to use and associate with porn I like) I guess what I want to say is that my blog entries of now and of then display the difference a year made for me and what I'd like to see more of from myself. Sure, lamenting has its time and place but self pity needs to be toned down to like... let's say 5 minutes. Yeah, that sounds about right.

I can't see myself working a deskjob as someone's lackey.

It does have its benefits over self employment. For example, you don't deal with every aspect of a company. The payout and stability of self employment is much more erratic as you start out and the payoff could be a long time coming. However, the work you put in and the return that you may get is a great experience that won't happen working for someone else. Not to mention that no one will willingly make you a millionaire unless you go out and grab it for yourself.

It has been awhile since I last posted an entry. I had so many things to write these past weeks but I was never able to write it eloquently enough to make it meaningful. But fuck eloquence. Here it is.

2007

2007. I can't believe how fast 2006 has flown by. I've changed quite a bit since the start of this year. I was getting out of the depressive funk with all the craziness of 2005. My dad's heart attack, BU's ungenerous ways, a lost friend, and rift with my first love. At the beginning of the year, I promised to myself that I would change for the best. It was a year to be proactive. To think but to remember to put that thought into action. And it has been a change in my personality or the letting loose of the beast in the basement as Rocky Balboa termed it.

I started a job as a paid intern at Thomson Financial in February.
Got a degree from Umass Boston.
Got a full time job at Thomson Financial for the New Year.
Began to really dedicate myself to playing the guitar instead of playing it once every month.
Looking into buying an apartment and educating myself in renting vs owning.
Preparation for the start of my new business come the new year.

Most of my 2006 has been dedicated to working and schoolwork and 2007 will be the same as I plan to learn Japanese and saving up money for buying a condo and a new car.

However, being more agressive changed me in a few ways (not to mention my poker style ). I still have some kinks to work out. Such as not thinking before I speak.

Sometimes I say something that says what I have in mind but a tone that changes its meaning.
I go on a swearing spree when strangers irk me the wrong way. (more on this later)

I've become more uninhibited but with more positives than negatives. However, I would rather get rid of the negatives before they become a habit.

Anyways, I'm at work right now and no one from the office is here. I think I'll just go and head out instead of sitting here doing what I would usually do at home.