The 2005 Breeders's Cup at Belmont Park

Do you know anything about horse racing? If you do, then you know about the Breeder's Cup. Until today, I had never heard of this race before. Apparently, it is the biggest deal in horse racing. This is where all the best thoroughbred horses come together for 8 championship races. This year it was held in Long Island which is why I had the privelege of attending.

Knowing basically nothing about horse racing, the event today was a bit of a culture shock. It was a strange mix of people. There were a limited number of wealthy people that stayed very cozy in their clubhouse boxes high above the rest of us. The majority of people were middle class looking people that froze their butts off all day. There were some shaddy looking people that walked around with wads of cash, a cigarette in their mouth, a pen, and their betting cards. There were lots of old men peering over their thick glasses to watch the final pay-outs on the television screen.

I placed a few very poorly researched bets and lost all my money...good thing I was only betting a dollar at a time. The closest I came to winning was in the fourth race. I bet exacta for the #9 and #8 horse. That means, I bet that the #9 horse would come in first place and the #8 horse would come in 2nd place. #9 came in first, but #8 was 5th place, so I didn't win anything. My friend Dan who I went to the race with won $1.05 on his first race. He only actually received $1.00 because "there are no nickels in horse racing"...or so we were told by the nice genleman behind the counter.

I had a great time though. Yelling for my horse as it races towards the finish line. Everyone is screaming and shouting. It's a lot of fun.....but very short-lived, because most of the races last less than 2 minutes.

Breaking the fast

Of course, many of you know it is Ramadan, the period of time when Muslims fast. I went with Farid to break his fast after work. We went to a Turkish restaurant on Thursday night. It's called Troy and it's on 40th and 9th. The people are friendly. It's cheap and really, really, good. It's so good I agreed to go with Farid again on Friday night to the same restaurant. I would definitely go check it out if you like Turkish food. Plus, they have excellent Baklava.

I live in a submarine....

I live in a submarine....that's the best way I can describe the clank, pound, steamy, noises that come from the pipes in the walls of my apartment. It seriously sounds like we're subversed in water and we're going down, if you know what I mean. These noises didn't occur during the summer, so I can only assume it has something to do with the fact that the radiators have been turned on in our building. ( I have really bad luck with radiators, I guess -- ask Jim if you don't know what I'm talking about.) Sometimes, the noises are so loud, they wake me up in the middle of the night. I don't know how long of this I will be able to take. I love New York.

The Colbert Report

Last night, Chrispy, Jillo, Pauly and I went to see a taping of The Colbert Report. Our good friend, JimK, gave us his tickets because he had another engagement last night. (the poor sucker had to go to class) Anyway, if you haven't seen the show, it is totally hilarious. It's on Comedy Central at 11:30pm weekdays...right after The Daily Show. It was a small audience and a small set, but it didn't matter. Steven Colbert is a pretty funny guy and he was pretty down to earth with the audience as well. Definitely try to go see a taping when you're in New York!

ROKS in Washington, DC

Last weekend was the ROKS conference in DC! It was a lot of fun. The hotel was in an interesting part of DC....we actually saw prostitutes leaving the hotel on Friday night. Saturday was an extremely long day, but I think it was a success. The delegates seemed to learn a lot and they still managed to stay up all night long.

Chrispy, Javier, and I were able to see a bit of the city on Sunday afternoon. We were sooo tired by the time we got on the bus.

Beauty of New York?

"The beauty of New York rests on a completely different base. It's unintentional. It arose independent of human design, like a stalagmitic cavern. Forms which are in themselves quite ugly turn up fortuitously, without design, in such incredible surroundings that they sparkle with a sudden wondrous poetry."

The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Author: Milan Kundera

I'm not sure if I agree with him, but I think this is a cool quote.

Int'l Rescue Committee

I volunteered at an IRC event on Tuesday night. My job was simple, escort a group a newly arrived Ethiopian refugees from Penn Station to the event location in mid-town. It didn't go exactly as planned. They were suppose to arrive at 5:30pm. At 6pm, I received a phone call from one of the refugees. In broken English, I understood that they were at Penn Station and had been waiting for me. Then, someone that spoke English got on the phone and explained to me these people were in Newark and looked really confused. The person was pretty annoyed, but he said he would explain to them how to get to Penn Station.

Around 7pm, the refugees finally showed up. I met them, said hello, we laughed about their earlier mistake, and cruised towards the subway entrance. Within 5 seconds, two people were missing. I have no idea what happened to them. We looked for half an hour and we never found them. One of the guys that spoke pretty good English explained, they probably just headed home.

The night went pretty well after that. The event was really cool. There was food, drinks, a photography exhibit, great music, and even African dancing. The refugees I brought stayed pretty close to me the whole night. They wanted me to ask the bartender for Mango juice..which she didn't have, so they settle for orange.

I returned them to Penn Station later than night. One of the ladies tripped twice on the escalators, so the last time we used one, she just took the stairs. She spoke very limited English, but I can tell she's a funny lady. They were all really nice people. They've been through so much, yet they still laugh, smile, and joke with each other. They were forced to flee Ethiopia 14 years ago and have been in a camp in Yemen the whole time. I hope to meet with them again and show them more of New York.

The leaves are falling...

The weather is really starting to change. There's more wind and the temperatures are dropping at night. I'm worried that the really cold weather is coming. I don't want the winter to come yet. Maybe I'll get lucky and this will be the mildest winter New York sees in centuries. I guess I shouldn't hold my breath.

I'll miss Sarah while she's in California. Have a safe trip!!!

Oktoberfest!!!

This was a fun night. We drank beer and ate good German food. The only thing that was missing was the band.