Today marked a rather grim anniversary: 5 years of the Iraq war. I attended a candle-lit vigil hosted by MoveOn in Madison Square Park. At first, only a humble number gathered to show their support for the anti-war cause. But then the group grew to a sizeable crowd, despite the stormy weather.

I spoke to one representative from MoveOn, who passionately told me her reasons for being against the war. She pointed out that America had now been engaged in the Iraq war for longer than World War II, certainly a disturbing thought. Another MoveOn representative carried a rather emotional sign, stating “I want my brother out of Iraq.” She gave a heartfelt speech which described the horrific conditions that soldiers are forced to endure in Iraq, including inadequate equipment, poor medical supplies, and low quality food and water. She said that she’d even had to buy her brother a gas mask. She called out to the crowd that if you support our troops, you are against the war – a statement met with cheers and applause.

The protest continued with volunteers from the crowd reading stories submitted to MoveOn about personal experiences with the Iraq war from soldiers and their loved ones. The message through these tales was clear – bring troops home to their loved ones and give them the care that they need. Many of these emotional excerpts stressed how money spent on the Iraq war should be spent on domestic education, health care, and care for veterans. The protest ended with people singing “Stop the war” to the tune of Taps.

What happened yesterday to me shouldn’t happen to any other person ever in the history of time. It wasn’t the worst that could have happened but the number of hours wasted and blood pressure fluctuations my body had to adjust for just weren’t any fun at all. Tonight my mom leaves for a trip out of town. For this trip she has to take a laptop which is going to be ultimately delivered to my sister. This laptop was supposed to arrive on the 13th but DHL delivers during the day and we weren’t home to pick it up.

I talked to Dell online Thursday to have them change the shipping address to my work location, but they hadn’t processed that as of yesterday afternoon. So since the flight is tonight, I had no choice but to ask them to hold the package so that I could pick it up.

So first what I did was googled their location which was listed as Inwood, NY. Me being the map-blind person that I am, it looked to me like it was in Brooklyn at first. So I hopstopped it and it said that I actually had to go all the way uptown to 207th street on the A train. But then DHL called my cell phone from a 516 number and this immediately rang alarm bells. That’s Nassau county, so why am I going all the way uptown?!

I was confused. I called DHL back and they asked “Are you familiar with the Five Towns area?” I said no. I had no freaking clue. Then she began rattling off directions. And then I mapquested the place.

I left work early. Got on the E train. Transferred to the F train at Union Tpke. Got off at 169th street which I don’t usually do but I did it yesterday so that I could get on the Nassau county express bus which would lead me faster to my home. I ran for the bus. I got off and ran for a few blocks. Put my messenger bag inside the house, jetted back into the car. Took 3-4 breaths. Plugged in my iPod, jumped into the car and started driving. Once I took the exit on the Cross Island Parkway I started waiting for Rockaway Blvd. to show itself. I rolled down the window and asked a woman driving a Dodge Intrepid who had also rolled down her window to smoke a cigarette (smoking sucks!) where Rockaway Blvd was. “Straight ahead, you’re going to go on a curvy narrow road.” I saw to my right blades of tall dead grass Above me an airplane, not unlike in movies, was landing at JFK, it roared onto the runway and soon I saw “FIVE TOWNS TOYOTA.” It looked desolate, but the lights were on the streamers were flying in the air, it was picturesque.

I go inside DHL after parking in the wrong area of the facility. The woman behind the counter says she needs my tag number not my last name or phone number or address to be delivered to.

“Really? You can’t look it up by my last name?”
A woman I’m not talking to responds.

“That’s just the way DHL’s system works. It doesn’t look up by last name, it looks up by tracking number.”
“Doesn’t that seem weird?”
“That’s just the way the system works.”
“Well your system is weird.”
“Oh really?”
“Really.”

After calling Dell’s automated line I get disconnected once, and then I finally get through; the machine gives me the tracking number. I write it down and hand it to the woman. She gives me my package. I leave Five Towns. I leave Far Rockaway. But the memory lives on.

Oh and I’m never, in my life again shipping with DHL (they don’t ship on weekends and their internal processes suck) and I’m never again purchasing a Dell (they have the best customer service but not as close to the results that you’d need in an emergency). For those wanting to stick with PCs, I’d suggest IBM’s new thinkpads. They have face-scan security in their newer line of products and their pricing is on-par with Dell’s.

Photo courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/birdw0rks/

Tonight from 11 pm-2 am, the Queens-Midtown Tunnel will be closed for the elephant walk from Queens into Madison Square Garden for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Each year, the elephants and other animals and circus performers arrive in New York via train and then walk through the tunnel and across town on 34th Street to the Garden. Usually the elephants show up before midnight. I saw the police setting up barricades on the curbs all along 34th Street this morning in preparation. There’s usually quite a crowd, including animal-rights protesters, so you may want to get there early, though if it rains tonight as predicted, the crowd might not be so bad.

If you go and take pictures, let us know in the comments!

image by Gabe Gross from last year’s elephant walk
via Gothamist

As a kid growng up in Long Beach, Long Island, I dressed in green every March 17, and my name on classwork headings was Fern O’Cohen. My very Jewish mom made corned beef and cabbage for dinner every St. Patrick’s Day. Yes, everybody is a little Irish today!

After the big parade this morning down Fifth Avenue, the real hard-core partying begins. Irish neighborhoods from Riverdale to Woodside, Queens will be full of green beer, Irish music and Irish food.

So, to all my Irish neighbors and Irish wannabees like myself, I would like to wish everybody a very Happy St. Patricks Day!

What can a person do when they’re feeling helpless and sad? Cry! But what if these emotions are so strong that you can’t help but do it on the train? Well you just go for it, I say.

Yesterday on the F train as I was listening to my iPod, I just turned to my left and saw this woman balling. She wasn’t hiding it, she was letting the tears flow freely and was also listening to something. I wondered if it was something touching that she had heard or if she’d just be handed some bad news.

I didn’t know what to do, she didn’t really look directly at me when she saw me crying, so I just continued listening to my music. But I always feel like talking to people on the subway who are crying. Just have them talk about it. You know?

If you’re reading this and were the woman who was in tears, I feel for you and it’s going to be OK.

If you were in the same situation, what would you do? Would you try to console them or would you just go about your daily business? Because on the one-hand you’re in a space that’s very public and open. Yet crying is a very personal and intimate release of emotions. When the two combine, it’s quite a complex matter, no?

About 2:30 this afternoon, a large crane collapsed into a few buildings on 51^st Street between 1^st and 2^nd Avenues. Right now, New York 1 seems to be the only channel that’s covering the news, and they are getting their information from firefighters and people that are calling from the scene.What they are reporting at this time is that 2 people have died from the accident and a number of others are trapped.
For more information, go to NY1.

Photo from vezzothincrust.com

New York City’s swarming with great pizza places. This week, I tried out one in Midtown: Vezzo Thin Crust Pizza. We were meeting some friends who had this place in mind, but couldn’t remember the name. When I saw a cute, brick restaurant, I guessed it was the one.

The place is not tiny, but it’s still cozy with brick walls and comfortable vibe. The menu has a range of different pizzas and pastas. However, most had meat, so we ended up going with the Classica. The pizza was deliciously perfect and the glass of Chianti matched the occasion. Definitely a tasty, comfortable spot in the midst of Midtown madness.

I have been riding my bicycle through traffic in NYC since I moved here. I have had long commutes and short ones – Bed-Stuy to Midtown, and at one point, a three block commute. I’ve had the same commuter bike the entire time. My trusty steed. I know that as a man, my bike should be a girl’s name by inanimate object naming standards, but it is not. It is named Keith after Keith Alexander. I never met Keith but I feel a connection to him that is difficult to explain. I am also blessed to be in possession of one of his bikes (the LOOK on his blog). Keith passed in a bicycle accident just over 2 years ago. My close friends and family were very close to Keith, but I never crossed his path. As I ride through the streets of New York City I can’t help but feel that he is on my back wheel pushing me harder as I ride through the park on his LOOK, or guiding me like a shaman through traffic as I ride home from work. He gives me strength every time I ride, almost every day of the year.

So this whole wedding thing is kind of funny. I’ve got most of my planning done and now we have to focus on a few little things like finishing our vows (we’re writing them ourselves) and putting together little gift bags for our out-of-town guests. One thing I have left to do is to find a tailor to take my dress in a little. It’s a bit big all around, and just needs simple tailoring along the seams – but I don’t have the faintest idea who to take it to. I don’t have a tailor here that I go to and neither do any of my friends, and I don’t want to take it to a bridal shop because a) it’s not a traditional wedding dress, but an evening gown, b) bridal shops are kinda awful and c) they charge a lot and take way too long, and I need this done in less than 3 weeks.

I found a list of the best neighborhood tailors on the NY Magazine site, and I’m thinking of going to the one closest to me – but what I really want is personal recommendations. That’s where you, our fine readers, come in!

So, if you have a tailor that you like, or you or your friends have used a good one in the city, please recommend them in the comments. I’d prefer one on the east side of Manhattan below 42nd Street, but anywhere that’s easy to get to by subway is fine. So recommend away!

Today on ABC news, reporter NJ Burkett was in Albany, talking with legislators to get their take on Governor Eliot Spitzer’s resignation, and our new Governor as of Monday, David Patterson.

It had already been mentioned several times that New York State’s first African-American and legally-blind governor is well-liked and has a great sense of humor. But Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind summed it up as only the Yiddish language can: “He’s a mensch”, said Hikind of Patterson. For those of you who don’t know Yiddish, or aren’t from New York, a “mensch” is someone every Jewish young lady wants to bring home– a real man, a human being, a really good guy!

Nice to know we will have a mensch in Albany!