The Perfect Foam

Pet Peeve

In my humble opinion, being human means having certain pet-peeves. As I happen to have many of them (does this make me more or less human?) I thought I would share one of them.

It’s actually pretty simple. When I order a drink or some food I like to be the first to try my drink or food. I HATE it when someone takes (or asks to take) a sip or bite before I have. And even worse is if the person has ordered their own drink or food and takes (or asks to take) some of mine first.

Why the heck did they order what they ordered if they wanted what I ordered?!

I have no problem with sharing, really I don’t. I simply request that you let me try my own food/drink before you do, and that if you ordered something yourself that you try your own before mine.

So if we ever go out to eat together don’t be shocked if I react rather harshly to your request for some of my food/drink if you haven’t followed the above parameters carefully. Hope you understand!

Tags: drink, food, pet-peeves, request
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Dust Mite Fecal Matter

I had previously had an allergy test done and I was well aware that one of my allergies was to dust mites.  As it had been years since my last test I recently went to a dermatologist to have another one done.

Essentially, allergens of different foods, animals, grasses/weeds/trees are pricked into your skin’s surface using what looks like a little plastic toothpick.  The pain is far from being unbearable, but considering that there are numerous of these pricks (up to about 40) it’s definitely an uncomfortable process.  Some of the results may not be clear and if this is the case they are followed up by an intradermal test in which allergens are injected just below your skin’s surface.

Once again I tested positive for an allergy to dust mites and considering size of the itchy red bump on my back, the dermatologist informed me that I was extremely allergic to them.  Then came the disturbing piece of information.  Being allergic to dust mites actually meant that I was allergic to dust mite fecal matter!

Dust mite fecal matter?!

That certainly doesn’t sound all that great.  So I asked the doctor where the greatest concentration of dust mites and their fecal matter typically are.  His response: beds!  And they can be found in our beds (pillows, comforters, sheets, mattress ) in the millions.

Well that makes it even better!  That which I am most allergic to not only lives in my bed, but it thrives there.  Constantly depositing more and more fecal matter.

The good news is that luckily there is a one-word solution: encasings.  I had to purchase these (not so inexpensive) encasings and then “encase” my pillows, my comforter, my box spring, and my mattress.  Whew!

The bad news is that you most likely do not have encasings.

That means tonight when you are sleeping you will literally be rolling around in a sea of dust mite fecal matter.  Certainly not an enjoyable prospect even if you aren’t allergic to dust mites.  Enjoy!

Tags: allergies, dermatologist, dust mites
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Who likes wearing neck constrictors?

I consider myself lucky.  Every day I get to come to work wearing jeans and a polo shirt.  It just doesn’t get much more comfortable than that (beyond maybe wearing sweatpants and an undershirt).

Considering that at my previous job I had to wear slacks and a dress shirt for the first year and a half and a tie thrown in for the last six months, I definitely feel blessed.  Slacks and a shirt aren’t too bad, but with the (dreaded) tie included you’ll catch me running the opposite direction whenever I get the chance.  Case in point- I attended an all-day seminar earlier this week and I thought that perhaps I should dress up a little for the occasion.  Upon arriving I quickly noticed that I was the only guy (granted there weren’t many people there) wearing a tie.  A swift removal of said tie occurred before the seminar began.

I was surprised to find out that there is quite a history behind some form of fabric being worn around one’s neck.  While its predecessors date back to ancient Egypt, the modern necktie has its origins in the industrial revolution (here is a history of the necktie courtesy of wikipedia).   Whatever its history may be I absolutely put myself in the “anti-tie” category (whether one exists or not!).

I’ll acknowledge that ties do make us guys look professional/handsome.  Now whether that’s because we’ve come to associate ties with looking professional/handsome, or whether we actually look professional/handsome is another matter.

The fact remains that I hate wearing a tie (let alone a suit AND tie; that would be a rant too long for a single post).  Why we force ourselves to essentially wear a noose around our necks is beyond me.  Seriously, isn’t that what a tie is- a piece of fabric constricting our ability to breath?!  Forgetting about what wearing a tie signifies, if anyone can explain to me how a tie enables someone to do their work any better, by all means please do.

I know the resulting question- why not let everyone come to work dressed however they please then?  Ok, ok, if everyone came to work in pajamas I admit there could be a problem.  And I understand that if people are dressed in a “professional” manner, there may be more of a likelihood that they act in a “professional” manner.  But I like the idea of being comfortable while I work and “sans cravat” certainly makes for more comfort.  In fact, make that jeans and a polo.

Tags: comfortable, job, professional, tie, work
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How Old Are…

One of the volunteers in my office recently celebrated his birthday and we surprised him with a cupcake and a not so harmonious rendition of “Happy Birthday”.  When I asked a co-worker how old the volunteer was, she said that she didn’t know and didn’t really want to ask him.  Someone eventually did end up asking him his age, but it made me think about how strange the fairly simple (at least in my mind) notion of age is.

Age has somehow become (maybe it’s always been?) quite complex.  For me, my age is simply a number.  Yes, it increases each and ever year and yes, I don’t particularly like the idea of getting too much older than I am right now.  I am still more than willing to share my age, though, and I can pretty much guarantee that I will never have a problem sharing my age.

My question then is why is it so impolite for us to ask others their age, particularly anyone (much) older than us?

Why is it acceptable for me to ask someone close to my age (20s) how old they are, but not someone over 50 or 60 this same elemental question?

Is it that people are ashamed of becoming or being older/old?

As far as I’m concerned, asking a person how old they are should be the same as asking that same person what they do for a living.  It’s an identifying piece of information that should not be as taboo as it apparently is to ask of someone.

Is it just me???

Tags: age, ask
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Public vs. Private

Have you ever noticed how you have “public” friends, distinct from your “private” friends?  If you’re wondering what in the heck I’m referring to let me clarify.  Public friends are your “watching the game at the bar” friends, or your “riding the bus in the morning” friends.  They represent anyone that you only spend time with in a public setting.  This contrasts with your private friends who you invite into your home or meet up with for dinner/coffee (they’re a part of your private life; get it, private life, “private” friend…).  Just as a note, I would like to add that I am not implying that a private friend is better or worse than a public friend.  These names simply serve to distinguish between the two.

I had definitely been aware of this divide between public and private, but it had never registered in my mind so distinctly until last week.  A co-worker of mine referred to her “ferry friends” and I suddenly realized how stark the divide between public and private is.

Public friends are perfect to bond with over a football game, but they aren’t necessarily perfect to meet up with outside of watching the game.  At least for me, the friends I have made while watching my beloved Patriots at bars over the past few years have mostly stayed in the public realm of friends.  Outside of the public setting, it would almost be strange to get together with them.

It can happen, though.  Kind of.

I spent a year watching Patriots’ games at the same bar, mostly with the same two guys.  Every week, we informally met up to watch the game.  Before we made the shift to becoming pseudo private friends (story below), I had run into one of the guys from the bar on the metro.  I was with a couple of my private friends at the time and looking back I remember being somewhat flustered.  I had never met one of my “watching the game at the bar” friends outside of the bar.  And for some reason it was a somewhat confusing situation.  I briefly introduced him to my friends and then he and his wife got off at the next stop.

Towards the end of football season we finally exchanged numbers, but we then proceeded to have almost zero contact until the next season began.  During the next season we actually watched a regular season game at one of the guy’s house, and then we got together for each of the three playoff games (including the Super Bowl).  So we never did meet up for dinner and we stayed within the framework of what had originally brought us together (football), but we did spend time with one another outside of a bar setting.

Having moved to a different city, I am going through the same process all over again.  I have found a Patriots’ bar and over the past few weeks I have seen some of the same guys a few times now.  It’s a slow process- I am only on a first name basis with one of them and I haven’t seen him since we officially introduced ourselves.

Making public friends is somewhat easy.  It’s the becoming private friends that seems to be the difficult part.

Tags: friends, private, public
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Pigeons=Humans

As I was eating a sandwich and drinking a coffee over my lunch break today in the Ferry Building the guy sitting at the table with me pointed out some interesting pigeon activity going on across from us.

A few pigeons were eating the remnants of a meal underneath a table.  The grouping consisted of a large, clearly well-fed adult pigeon, and two smaller and much leaner adolescent pigeons.  Whenever these two other pigeons tried to get at some of the food, the older pigeon pecked at them to chase them away.  They certainly could have used the food more than their older companion.

The guy at the table offered up an interesting observation- just as with the pigeons, so it goes with humans.  The bigger and stronger among us apt to push around the smaller and weaker.

Though this is obviously an extreme generalization, I though it was fairly poignant of my table mate.  I’ll have to keep my eyes open next time I spot a pigeon.  Who knows what other similarities are out there?!

Tags: observation, pigeons
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Seriously???

Anyone needing to feel a little smarter today is in luck!  I thought I would pass along this wonderful little tidbit for you to nosh on.

I was at a Subway getting a sandwich the other day and I decided to have it toasted (upon being asked).  I vaguely remembered reading a sign posted at another Subway that toasted sandwiches would cost more, but I couldn’t remember the reason that was given.  Indeed, when I arrived at the cash register I noticed that my sandwich cost more than the last time I had stopped in for one of their now famous (as a result of those wonderful commercials that can be seen ALL the time) “five dollar foot-longs”.

I asked the lady working the register if toasted sandwiches cost more and she replied that they sure did.  The reason being that the state of California makes a distinction between warm and cold sandwiches.  Apparently cold sandwiches don’t get taxed, but as soon as you warm them up they are.  Those 20 seconds in the microwave cost you 8.5% extra on the bill.

To this I could only muster a “wtf” look on my face.  The lady summoned it up best in pointing out that California “is still broke” even with taxes like this.

As I left the Subway thinking about the ridiculousness of this tax rule, I couldn’t help feeling a little smarter in comparison.  Hope you do too!

Tags: sandwich, Subway, tax
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Why?

I am the first to admit that I haven’t always been as nice of a person as I should be and I will probably continue to fail in this regard in the future.  What I feel that I can say with a fair amount of certainty and confidence is that I don’t make it a point to be mean to others and I definitely don’t have cruel intentions.

I say this because last Friday after I had just gotten off the bus and was walking down the street to my office, I saw an act that I can best characterize as being mean and cruel.  There was a homeless man sleeping inside a cardboard box.  Picture a box about the width of a twin-sized mattress and long enough to cover the man, except for his feet.  Just as I noticed this, another guy was walking past the homeless man in the opposite direction as me and his first impulse was to kick the box as he walked past it.

Was the man in the box a strange site to see in downtown San Francisco?  Sure.  I was a little surprised myself.  While there are plenty of homeless people begging for money and food throughout the downtown area, this was the first time I had seen someone sleeping in a box, right outside of a store.

I have a tough time seeing homeless people in general- it’s a mix of feeling sorry for them and of feeling bad about everything that I have in comparison.  I have my moments of feeling sorry for myself, but two things I always try to remain aware of/thankful for are having enough food to eat and a bed to sleep in.  The last thing in the world I would ever do is to kick the box in which someone was sleeping.

It was disgusting to see this happen.  And even worse was the dirty, dry cackle that the guy let out as he walked by the box after kicking it.  What causes someone to do this?  A rough morning?  A rough life?  It would have been illuminating to be in his mind to witness the thought process involved, if there was any.  It’s a shame that there are people out there with nothing better to do with their time and such a lack of a moral code that they can do such a thing and actually laugh about it.

A part of me hopes that karma pays this guy a visit.

Tags: box, cruel, homeless, karma, mean, nice
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Who sent me that email?!

Changing gears a little from my spiritual sports extravaganza that was last Thursday, I thought I would go on a little rant.  About the stock market, about another potential government bailout, about my 401k you might be thinking?  Oh no, something far more personal actually.  The all important issue of the way we choose to sign our emails.

I believe I first started to experience the annoyance that is the one letter email signature a few years ago when I noticed that a friend of mine was signing his emails simply with the letter “D”.  Or even worse, sometimes with the lower case version “d”.  Since then I have noticed that a large portion of the emails I get end with one letter.  I sometimes even have to double check the sent from email address to remember who sent me the email.  This of course doesn’t help when the email address has no part of the person’s name in it, ala AOL screen names!

Are people really that lazy or in that much of a rush that after getting through writing an entire email (mind you that some of these emails aren’t only one liners), they can’t simply spell out their names?  It’s actually quite mind-boggling.  Maybe it’s the result of the mighty Blackberry (I think I made my thoughts on the this matter very clear) taking over lives left and right.  I don’t know.  Whatever the reason may be, I don’t think I’ll like it!

May I propose a few simple rules for emailing:

1. You must at lease use the full version of the name that your friends call you.
2. You may use any number of nicknames, provided that whomever you are emailing is also familiar with the nickname.
3. You may only use a single letter as your signature if that is one of your nicknames (in which case, I would suggest that you become a little more creative).
4. You must otherwise refrain from using a one letter signature.

I hope that helps clarify.

Tags: Blackberry, emails, rant
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Sports

Tonight was one of those nights for me.  One of those nights that I looked forward to all week.  Yes it was only a football game.  Yes in the big picture of the world this game meant absolutely nothing.  But, it was a chance for me to enjoy one of the many pieces comprising my perfect foam.

Watching the Patriots play their games is not only a major outlet for my intense competitiveness; it’s also an opportunity for me to turn off my mind for three plus hours and do nothing but watch.  And of course be verbally engaged, which anyone that has watched a game with me can attest to being quite the experience.

From the Patriots-Bills’ game back in the late 1990s, which ended with a Drew Bledsoe to Ben “Winter” Coates touchdown on the last play of the game and my friend Derek and I out on my front lawn rolling around, hootin and hollorin up a storm, to that first Super Bowl win in 2001.  The Patriots have truly been a release for me, and a way to bond with complete strangers at the nearest bar.

Unlike the fateful day in the fall of 2003, when I watched the Aaron Boone home-run off of Tim Wakefield in a bar in Noosa, a small town in Australia (I had to call Derek from a pay phone in order to have someone to lament to!) alone, I have always found people to watch Patriots’ games with.  Literally a 5 minute walk from my apartment in San Francisco I came across a full on Patriots/Red Sox bar.  All TVs are tuned to the game and the bar filled with New Englanders, the people among whom I feel most at home with.  There is just nothing else like walking into a bar full of people that you mostly don’t know and within an hour bonding with these same people over a football game.

It really is amazing.  As I got my pizza at halftime (you can bring food into the bars here!), I had a feeling that even though the Patriots were down by eleven this would be an exciting game with an exciting finish.  Indeed it was!  I will spare you most of the details, but though they lost, when they tied the game with a touchdown on fourth down, with one second left in the game, the bar absolutely erupted.  And I mean it ERUPTED!

I found myself in a mass of people, jumping up and down, hugging random guys, almost tackling the guy next to me out of joy, screaming incoherently.  Again, this is fairly easy to visualize for those that have watched a game with me!  You won’t find me too much happier about too much else!

Though the Patriots lost in overtime, to the hated Jets of all teams, I found myself not nearly as upset as I would have been in the past.  Maybe it was because Matt Cassel, the backup to the injured Tom Brady, played so well and represents the underdog in all of us, or maybe it was because it was just a fun game to watch.  What I do know is how much damn fun I had jumping up and down with a group of random guys celebrating one play of one football game, representing one of sixteen games I will end up watching this regular season.

I can’t wait for the next game so I can do it all over again.  It just doesn’t get much better.

Tags: foam, Patriots
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