New York Adventures Part 1 of 3

As some of you might now (you should probably know by now, I’ve mentioned it at least a billion times in the blog by now) I’ve been doing office visits for an internship this coming winter semester. Recently I was able to go to New York City, New York for the first time on one of these office visits. This is Part 1 of a 3 part series about my adventures in New York. It is a photo journal if you will.

So my adventures began by landing in La Guardia airport after a long flight at about 4 in the afternoon on a Sunday. The first order of business was to get a cab to the hotel I was staying. Here is part of the line I had to wait in to get that cab.

Anyway, this was my first experience ever getting a cab on my own. I am glad you can share in it with me. Luckily I never actually had to hail a cab while in New York, there was always someone else to do it for me. In this case they had a long line at the airport and the guy just directed the cabbies where to park.

None of these pictures came out to well, but the first of the map of New York that was in the cab, the rest various pictures of New York City, and the last is a picture of the David Letterman studio (although in this picture you can’t see it too well). While driving through New York I saw a whole bunch of people and a bunch of people wearing silver capes (I had only seen one person wearing one at first and I thought he was odd, but then a whole bunch as I sat in the cab) . These silver things peoples were wearing looked like Capri Sun containers stapled together and wrapped around these people. It was weird, but I thought “Hey maybe that’s the fashion.”

Anyway, I arrived at my hotel which was the Crown Plaza Royal in Times Square. I think these places are normally somewhere around $500 a night. I got to stay for free luckily as I was going to be interviewing with Ernst and Young the next day.

As I was getting out of the cab I needed to pay the cabbie. Well I tried talking to my cabbie on the way to the hotel, but he was very hard to understand. So when I was getting out he was even harder to understand. So I get the receipt and it’s for $25.70, and the cab I think is telling me that it is this much, but I couldn’t understand him, so I just give him $29 and figure that’s good for tip and what not. Well he says something that I make out to be $4 for a toll (because we went through a toll bridge). So he says something like “1 more dollar.” So I give him a dollar or two. I then ask “Does that include tip?” because I had no idea what the guy was saying or how much I had already paid him, he says something like “No, that’s o.k.” but I go ahead and give the guy an extra $2 more dollars (probably not the best tip, but I had no idea how much I had already paid him…even though I think I just told you). Well I get out and an older couple are getting in, and boy did I feel stupid that I had no idea how much cash I had given that cabbie, and felt bad for the couple for having to wait for so long.

I went into the hotel and you had to ride an escalator up to the lobby. Well I rode it up and I didn’t see any check in, and the escalator kept going so I kept going too. I then see a bunch of people going into conference rooms, and drinking champagne, and a sign that says something like “New York Marathon.” I also see some more of those Capri sun cape things with “New York Marathon” on it, so that mystery was solved (well at least I think it is solved because I figured the New York Marathon was that day).

Anyway, I realize I’ve gone too far up on this escalator and decide to go back down one floor. I finally find the check-in hidden around a corner after wandering around looking for long enough. So I go ahead and check into my room…room 4309. I think I will post part 2 another day as this already is a lot to read for one day and you probably think these stories are somewhat boring.

Wii are sad...

Well I haven't posted for a while I think it's because I've decided that I won't post unless my girlfriend posts and since I wrote her last post (before the most recent one you can find by clicking "Heather" on the right hand side of this page) I decided I didn't have to blog for a while...well she blogged, so now I feel like I have to blog until she blogs again. It will be a never ending cycle (or so I hope).

Anyway, as some of you may know I've unfortunately had to leave Heather for a lot of weekends in a row. Well other then that other bad things have happened to me. I've been losing things I guess you can say.

For instance last weekend I lost my sunglasses, my planner, and my chapstick...

Anyway, so that sucked....but most likely it was my fault I lost these things.

The good news of last weekend was I was actually offered an internship for the winter semester so that was good and these things are easily replaceable (I later found another thing of ChapStick that I had lost before I had lost the latest ChapStick). It may cost upward to $5-$10 to replace those things. Probably not that much if I were able to get another free BYU planner, and a $0.99 pair of sunglasses (that's probably how much the other ones were worth anyway.

Anyway, this weekend I actually stayed the weekend after my office visit in Dallas to see my family (despite siblings who apparently didn't want to see me as they went on dates) and to go to another office visit (in New York) on Monday (I still haven't heard back from the office visit yesterday).

Well while I was watching a movie (Dan in Real Life....very good movie by the way) at the theater this morning I got like 3 phone calls in a row. Well I never get one phone call in a day little own 3 in a row. Well I don't like leaving movies and for the most part I was enjoying the movie, this however seemed suspicious and I immediately thought something was wrong (I forgot to mention this to you Heather but I thought something had gone horribly wrong with you and that was the reason why I was receiving all the phone calls). Needless to say I was worried.

I then get a text.

The text basically confirms (well not confirms...Heather was alright playing her recital as I thought she may be and as you can read about in her blog) my worries and I come to find out through a series of texts and a failed attempt at a phone call (Sorry Jason I had bad service in that hallway leading into the theater) that my relatively new Nintendo Wii (my birthday present to myself) was stolen.

Anyway, after the movie I was finally able to call my friend and found out the details (basically the details are the roommate went to bed at around 2:00 to 2:30 a.m....he didn't lock the door because people were coming in and out all night...a roommates friend came in at around 3:30 a.m. and noticed the lamp was on, but didn't think anything of it. My roommate wakes up in the morning, goes out into the living room and sees that my wii (with controllers and nunchucks and my Metroid Prime 3 game in it), his cell phone, and his ps2 are missing. What they (or he/she) didn't steal were another roomies vcr/dvd combo, a dvd player, a computer and monitor, and a bunch of dvds, wii games, books, and PEZ dispensers.

We have no idea who did it. I then proceeded to give the police officer (who my roommates had contacted about this) my name and told him no one had borrowed my wii and my roommate found serial numbers and what not we needed to give the officer to hopefully track it down.

I HIGHLY doubt anything will come of it. Although I hope you all can have faith for me. I did check to see that they couldn't get my Credit Card number from the wii (as I had bought something from the virtual console) (they can't apparently) or buy any other virtual games with the number (although I think I did still have 200 points left).

Anyway I am taking a collection plate for purchase of replacements of the lost things if anyone wants to donate! I doubt I will get Metroid 3 again as I don't really have the patience to play back up to the point I was at to beat the game.

I hope I don't lose anything more this next weekend when I go out of town for the last time on office visits.

If you want to donate you know where to find me.





THERE I FINALLY BLOGGED HEATHER AND AMY AND WHOEVER ELSE WAS WAITING! :-)

Why is it called Roast's blog?

Well as I write this there are still 3 hours until the votes close (I don't know why I had to wait until the votes closed, I guess the truth is I was just lazy) for what you want me to blog about. Unfortunately this isn't the most amusing anecdote, but you guys asked for it.

So some of you may already know that my nickname is ROAST. My real name I won't reveal here because you should already know it if you are reading this. If not you're creepy...stop stalking me. How I got this nickname really isn't too interesting so I'll talk about nicknames in general and such.
Do any of you remember the Seinfeld episode "The Maid" it was from the 9th season, 19 episode (at least according to this script I read. Well basically amongst other things that are pretty funny in the episode (I think I've only seen it once, but just read the script) Jerry hires a maid/prostitute (I suggest skipping that part of the script), Kramer breaks up with his girlfriend because she lives in a different part of New York (he also gets lost in this part of NY), Elaine goes through phone number problems (this part is actually pretty funny), but the most important thing that happens in this episode of Seinfeld is that George gets the nickname Koko (the monkey) and then Gammy when all he wants is the nickname T-bone. Anyway this has nothing to do with how I got the nickname ROAST, but T-bone and ROAST are kind of similar, and it is an accountant in the episode that gets the nickname! :-)

Anyway, this is how I got my nickname. I was at scout camp (a long time ago) and one of the guys from another ward was handing out nicknames. A guy named Brandon got the nickname Brenda (that's the only one I remember) and I got the nickname Roast. Well mine stuck because this guy would always call me this so everyone else started calling me it. So I introduced myself as it in my freshmen year of college. It stuck. Lately it hasn't stuck so much, but people still call me it, and I try to introduce myself as my name/ROAST.

I've had other nicknames but if I say them they might give my name away. Like *****-c-poo is a prominent one especially from my sister. *****-c-bear. Yep...

Anyway, I think Roast is a cool nickname. I want to name one of my kids Roast, and I want to name like everything ROAST (like put it on my license plate or something). I even think the teddy bear I gave my girlfriend may be named Roast.

One Halloween I went as a Roast. Everyone thought it was funny, but everyone that didn't know my nickname just thought it was a piece of meat! :-) I think my mom still has this costume.

Anyway, I told you it wasn't much of a story.

Uninspired

I've felt uninspired to blog about anything...so I created that poll to the right of this blog post (it's basically from a different blog post though). Vote now! :-)

I wear contacts

So this isn't in the realm of things I've mentioned to blog about (I did notice that on my last post no one even posted what they wanted to hear about next), but figured I'd tell a story about me, Roast, being 1.) poor (really just cheap) and 2.) Unhealthy.
So...I wear contacts. They are disposables, but I of course never do what they are indeed called...that is dispose of them. Yep...I wear them FAR past their 2 week life even sometimes wearing them longer then a month. That's why I am unhealthy. Or rather one reason I am unhealthy. Anyway, here I am in California (yes it's another California story) and I have 2 weeks left on my contacts prescription and I really don't want to pay for another $50 eye exam to get a new prescription (and I don't really want a new prescription either as I am sure my eyes have only gotten more blind). This shows #1, being poor/cheap so instead of getting a new prescription I decide I am going to do the economical thing and buy my contacts in bulk to last until my eyes rot. So where do you go to buy in bulk? SAM'S CLUB!!!
So after work one day I decide to go get my oil changed at the Wal-Mart (next door to the Sam's club in Santa Clarita, CA) as I'd driven all the way from Provo, UT to Dallas, TX, and then from Dallas, TX all the way to La Crescenta, CA without an oil change. (Yes I am aware I spent a good chunk of my summer in my light blue Toyota Corolla.)
Anyway I decide I'll go order the contacts at Sam's Club while my car is getting an oil change. They tell me to be back in like 20 mins or so. So I go into Sam's Club, find the optical section and order like 4-5 boxes of contacts. Well the guy that was there wasn't American....and if he was he sure didn't speak English very well. I am not racist or anything, but I figured a guy that works at Sam's club optical should know what he is doing and should probably be able to communicate in English. By the way his name is Darry (which as far as I know is pronounced "Dairy").

So I give Darry the prescription which he has no idea how to put into his computer and tells me to come back another day. Well I tell him I drove half an hour to get there, and I'm a pretty busy guy, the prescription is almost expired, and can't come back during the day anyway. So he calls his co-worker (who does absolutely nothing over the phone with him). So I ask to see his computer. I end up putting my own prescription in the computer (I'm pretty sure this probably isn't legal (that doesn't make sense I am aware)...but I guess you can't get high off of contacts so why not let a customer do all the work). The only way I'm really able to do this is by calling the Sam's club in Provo (which had my prescription already in the system and if Sam's Club was a little bit better they'd just have their systems linked so you can get your prescription wherever you are) and talking through how to put stuff in the computer (I figured it out for the most part, but putting in the actual prescription was a little tricky).

So if this wasn't enough he starts to ring me up and it rings up as around $50/box which is WAY more then I usually pay for my contacts, so I have to fix my prescription in the computer to the alternate prescription that I have on these contacts (which are 3x cheaper and just as good as far as I know). Anyway, I get it fixed and he's going to void out the old transaction and charge me the real price, but instead he kept on ringing up the old price until it gets to an exuberant amount of money of $527.34 (I know it was this amount because I wrote it down to tell people about later). So I say..."I'm not paying that much....you've done something wrong." So he says (once again as he said a billion times) "I Sorry" and calls over his COS (the Sam's club cashier people's supervisors).

So this big black guy comes over with wavy curly black hair wearing a big "R" belt buckle who's name is "Percy" comes over and says in a femme voice "I'm Sorry." and proceeds to ring it up (correctly) and leaves. So I finally pay (after being there for about an hour) get some other groceries and go back and get my car (after it had been done with the oil change for a LONG time). The weird thing is Darry keeps my prescription which I was a little hesitant to let him do in case the contacts didn't make it (they do by the way and I get my now expired prescription back).



Well at least I won't need to get contacts again for a while....

My Most Embarrassing Moment...

So I took a poll recently about what you wanted to hear about next (and although this isn't exactly next to that poll) here is what you asked for: My most embarrassing moment.

This moment in my life is brought to you by the letter "P."










So as some of you may know I was working for The Walt Disney Company this summer. Well one week I was actually doing an audit at Disneyland, and by "at Disneyland" I mean at the Team Disney Anaheim building that is located right behind Disneyland (if you know where "It's a Small World" is it's back behind there a little ways).




Well one day after work I decided I'd go the back way into the park (for free...it was the back way after all) (remind me to tell you about another day that I did this that same week that was also somewhat embarrassing) and meet a friend that was actually in from out of town with her family and ride some rides with them and what not. Well I eventually found my friend and her family. I know her parents pretty well and am friends with her mom (who was there). Well her mom was using one of those scooter wheelchairs that Disneyland has because she had recently been through surgery for her back (or something like that I can't remember). Well my friend's family was about to eat dinner so my friend, her brother, and I decided that we'd take the wheelchair and go get on the new "Finding Nemo" ride (who wants to wait a normal 2 1/2 hours for what use to just be the submarine ride! I mean really!)

So I get to drive the wheelchair (for some reason...I guess because it was my idea) and we get caught up behind Disney parade lines. Well after the parade is over the place is swarming with people and I'm there happily driving along this wheelchair scooter and lo and behold the scooter dies....right in the middle of thousands of people! We try to get the juice going, but no such luck. What am I suppose to do....stand up and walk? "It's a miracle I'm healed!"

So I tell my friend to go tell her mom to get one of those attendants Disney has while I have her brother push this 200 lb. scooter wheelchair with me in it back toward the Pinocchio ride where we left their mother and rest of the family. This scooter was not easy to push either because half way through pushing I decide to be nice and let her brother sit and I'd push. "It's a miracle I was healed!"

Well we eventually get back to their mom and she starts talking to an attendant about the wheelchair and how the wheelchair is dead. Well I am sort of standing away so I don't get in trouble and don't get fired from my corporate job (remember I had got into Disneyland the back way and yet was not a Disneyland cast member so felt kinda fishy being there in the first place) and overhear the cast member tell her mom something to the extent of this...."Sorry about that ma'am, these things sometimes happen because the wheelchair is sensitive to weight, so if a child is driving it then it will stop working, or other things like that could happen...."

So not only was I sneaking into a theme park, illegally taking advantage of the whole disability system, and miraculously healed in front of thousands of people, but I was also compared (Unknowingly to the person who did the comparison) to a child in weight.

Yeah...I was pretty embarrassed.

p.s. We later tried to go on the Nemo ride with the mom in the wheelchair but the wait was still at least 45 minutes and I had to go meet some other people in the park so we took the "alternate Nemo ride...which probably isn't as cool...because you're just watching a TV with what people that are on the ride would see.

Anyway, let me know what you want my next fantastic post to be about. I hope you enjoyed the story and I hope I made it entertaining enough.

Why I haven't posted what you want me to...

So I haven't posted anything new lately because of interviews. I am currently in the process of interviewing for an internship for the winter semester. So I am answering a bunch of questions like... "What kind of conflicts have you had in groups?", "What is your greatest weakness?", and "What is something that you felt really good about accomplishing?" I hope my answers will get me a good job. Its hard to think of answers to these!

Anyway, I'll try to post "My most embarrassing moment" this weekend.