45$ in library fines. I completely forgot about the whole borrow/return policy for 1.5 months apparently.  I kind of went on a Noir streak, reading a collection of stories from Richard Matheson (of I Am Legend fame), Miami Noir, and Brooklyn Noir. The last two were collections of short stories with settings in different neighborhoods of each city.

So last weekend I was at Union Hall with a few friends after a night of hitting up other places all over Park Slope. My cousin was getting us all a round of whiskey shots, but after he bought them, our friend Dave didn’t want his. I looked around and there was a cute girl standing next to me at the bar so I asked her, “Hey my friend doesn’t want to take this shot, do you want to join us?” Her reply, “Why don’t you just take both shots, the result will be the same.” 

It took me a few seconds to realize what she meant, but when it sunk in, OUCH! All she really had to do was say no, but she went the extra mile. I’ve never gotten a rejection like that before, it’s usually either just “no” or nothing, so this was definitely the worst ever!

Anyone else get a worse rejection? I’m thinking getting rejected on a marriage proposal would be way worse. Or on the altar if the bride says, “i’d rather not” instead of “i do”. I wonder if that’s ever happened.

************ EDIT ****************
Thanks for all the comments, I’ll try to get back to you in a bit. A few people have asked what she meant, so I’ll tell you what I think it was: She meant that whether she took the shot or not, she wasn’t going to give me the time of day. For the record, I was trying to think of a snappy comeback, but she left right after she said her line.

For those of you who expressed condolences, I thank you =), but don’t worry because I believe in (and at least try to follow) the idea in this quote by Teddy Roosevelt:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the
strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them
better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives
valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is
no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive
to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who
spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the
triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at
least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with
those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

I just got accepted to Big Brothers Big Sisters! Now I’m just waiting for them to find me a match. I went through training yesterday evening for about 2 hours and it was pretty helpful I think. They did talk about having unreasonable expectations right off the bat, so I guess I’ll dial down the expectation of my little becoming President someday. I think Senator is still reasonable.

In other news, a bunch of my friends just moved or will be moving to NYC, so I’m pretty excited about that. Also, Dave is moving to the coolest borough this month =).

big brothers/big sisters interview went well, i think they’ll be contacting me this week sometime.

watched the fireworks on 4th of july off the FDR on the east side of Manhattan, despite the rain it was awesome!

had a kickass picnic in prospect park with a bunch of friends and new friends and ate a whole plate of my friend amy’s cheesecake brownies, we’ll be doing this again soon!!

got “doored” while biking to work (some asshole opened his door after parking not looking to see if anyone was coming, luckily i was able to keep my bike steady and not fall and i just kept going after telling him what an asshole he was) and my handlebar wrapping got cut.

found a new apartment with Joel from work and his friend Gene in carrol gardens/red hook in Brooklyn with roof access and with a view of the manhattan skyline (i can see it from my bedroom window!).

I applied online for Big Brothers/Big Sisters a few days ago and I had a phone interview this morning. I have an in office interview on Tuesday, and I’m excited for it! I’ve always wanted to do Big Brothers/Big Sisters but I’ve never had a chance because I’ve never been in one place for a long enough time.

One thing’s for sure though, my kid is going to go straight to the top! Now I’m not going to be crazy and say he’s going to be the President of the United States, but I’m thinking at least a senator or captain of industry =).

I’ll let you all know how it goes after Tuesday! Oh and if anyone has done this before, please let me know if you’ve got any advice, thanks!

Another awesome video from Derrick Comedy:

Oh man, so many good lines in this one!

test

Today I ordered a Schwinn Madison bike from a store near work that Dave recommended. It’s a track bike with a single gear/fixed gear (depends on the way you put in the cog) and it looks awesome. I’m planning on getting rid of the labels and painting it all white.

While I was buying the bike, some really drunk guy came into the store to pick up his bike that was getting repaired. He walked up to me and the store owner and said the store owner was “the man.” The guy smelled like the basement of my house in college the day after a party. After getting his bike he attempted to ride uptown against traffic. The store owner tried to run after him, but it was too late. The drunk guy could barely stand upright in the store, so I’m pretty sure he’s going to have to bring his bike back in to get repaired after he crashes and maybe check himself into a hospital.

As promised, here’s how a South Indian Hindu Wedding works.

I found out that I was going to be the “brother” for my cousin divya’s wedding because her brother couldn’t make it. This means that I got to be a part of a lot of cool traditions! Here’s what I went through:

Step 1: Fly to Hyderabad from NYC via Amsterdam. Sleep to try to overcome jetlag:

Step 2: Help find jewelery and clothes for the wedding and reception in Hyderabad, including a wedding outfit for myself. This was a lot of work.

Step 3. Rest.

Step 4. Drive from Hyderabad to Warrangal where the wedding was going to happen.

These are all the members of “Team Rich”. From left to right, Shashi, Venkat, my little sister Chandana, and me. Our mission was to make this wedding ridiculously fun. This is us on the way to Warrangal.

Step 5. Stop on the way to Warrangal to get mangoes:

Kranthi and Venkat with some mangoes.

Chandi looking like a traditional village girl.

Step 6. More shopping in Warrangal, especially for the Mehendhi party.

We saw some interesting buildings like this one while shopping:

It’s basically a fertility clinic, but the name on the building is hilarious.

Step 7. Wake up early (5 am! because by 9 am it’s 100 degrees at least) and workout so I don’t get too lazy.

Step 7.5    Rest

Step 8. Mehendhi party! It’s a semi-permanent tattoo (lasts for 2 weeks or so).

My cousin Divya getting mehendhi on her arms.

 

Chandi’s mehendhi.

Team Rich with the bride to be at the party. See the flowers in the background? Me and Shashi did that!

My little cousin Harshita at the party =). There was a dance party afterwards.

Step 9. So the night before the wedding we had another party, thrown by the groom’s family. There was a lot of good food, and I got some money for “blessing” the groom and bride. Also, I was given entry into the circle of uncle drinking. Basically, a bunch of uncles got some beer and indian chicken wings and were having a good time in part of the garden where the party was going on. They brought me over and asked me to “just have one sip.” So I took one sip of beer and then tried to pass it on, but they said that they already had some. Which they did. In India, bottles of beer are huge and they’re basically one step below malt liquor, so I knew this could be trouble. They were all pressuring me too, which statements like, “hey, we finished our beer, what about yours?” It was like some of my friends from college flew to India and morphed into older Indian uncles. I managed to somehow sneak away without getting too drunk the night before the wedding!

Step 10. Because I was the “brother” for the wedding, I had to go bring the groom (his name is Praneeth) to the wedding personally. I think maybe this tradition is to ensure that grooms don’t get cold feet and ditch out on the wedding. So traditionally, all the brothers of the bride would have to literally carry the groom from his house to the vehicle (probably in the past it would be a horse or a cow, but now it’s just a decorated car), but luckily I didn’t have to do that because I was the only one. Because the wedding was at 10 am (the most auspicious time for that day apparently), I had to wake up at 2 am to go get the groom.

As you can see, it was still dark outside and there was a buffalo chewing on something. This is the view from the car as we went to the ceremony (you can see the wedding band marching in front of it):

While this was going on, Divya was also getting ready doing some sort of ceremony:



      

Step 11. The wedding!
There were too many cool traditions to mention, but I’ll talk about one really fun one in particular. I had to lead the groom to the altar by hand from the “preparation room.” Before he gets on the altar, I’m supposed to wash his feet and take his sandals. The key here is that me and the rest of the bride’s family are supposed to hide the sandals and hold them for ransom while the groom’s family has to pay a ransom to get them back. We took the sandals and hid them in a locked car. Somehow during the wedding, the groom’s family got them back. So we set up a trap between the groom and the people who had the sandals. When they came to try to give the groom the sandals we sprung our trap and got them back. It required a little bit of tackling from me and some other people on the bride’s side of the family, but it was all in good fun =). Here are the rest of the photos from the wedding:

My sister, Praneeth, Divya, and me.

The after dinner. There were people all around getting us food constantly.

My little cousin again, isn’t she adorable!?

She’s on the wedding chairs!!

In the beginning of the cermony you’re not supposed to see each other.

Walking around the altar.

Step 12. Practice for the Team Rich dance which we did at the reception the day after the wedding. If I can get the video I’ll put it up. It was awesome =). The photo below is of the initial pose.

Overall, it was a lot of work, and I was really tired but it was the most fun wedding I’ve been to so far.

Finally,

Rest.

Ok, Lebron, you are the man after beating the Pistons. I accept your new level of greatness and I will sing your praise, IF you do me one favor. For the love of humanity and all that is good, will you please beat the Spurs as quickly as possible so that I don’t have to see Tim Duncan’s face too much? Thanks!