Sad Day

Today is indeed a sad day. My oldest and dearest friend, Aris' mom Pat passed away earlier today. She was taken way too early. There aren't enough words to express what I am feeling right now. I know what my dear friend must be feeling and I wish I was there to comfort him.

Even though I hadn't seen Pat for a number of years she was never far from my heart. Growing up with Aris, she was my second mom.

Some of my most cherished memories of her are from 1984.

Pat's love affair with Bruce Springsteen. I remember she never stopped listening to "Born in the USA" that summer. She had pictures of Bruce all over the house. I don't know how many times she saw Bruce in concert that summer.

I remember Pat driving us out to Greenport one summer night to our friend Nicky's summer house. I remember sitting in the back of the car driving down a country road looking up at the moon listening to Judas Priest's "Victim of Changes" thinking it doesn't get much better than this.

I remember Pat and my mom throwing Aris and me a joint birthday costume party at our school later that year. Two mothers' love for their only sons on full display.

You see at that time we didn't have a care in the world, our whole life was ahead of us. Still, Aris and I would sit and talk seriously about the mysteries of life, love, adventure and what IT was all about. Not realizing we didn't have a clue about life.

I now look back at that time of innocence and smile. We were dreamers that were encouraged to dream by our parents. If it wasn't for them we wouldn't be the men or fathers we are today.

One thing I do know Pat, is that your son is a good man. You taught him well. You taught him how to be a good father. You taught him how to be a good friend. But most of all you taught him how to love.

Pat, I know you're at peace. When you see Igor send him my love.

With much love, your other son.

The Precious is Mine...Continued, or rather my ordeal of getting an iPhone 3G - Part I

I apologize for the lack of any updates, but I have been pretty busy. But as they say, better late than never.

So here goes. Let's rewind to July 11th...

Well, there was no way I was gonna allow iPhone 3G Launch Day (07-11-08) to go by w/o me trying to get my hands on one. It didn't matter that I have a perfectly good 8G first gen iPhone. I had a score to settle. Last year on 06-29-07, I couldn't get one because I was still locked into a contract with Verizon which would not end until mid December of that year. It was torture, but I made it to December and then a week after my contract was up with Verizon I got the iPhone. Once the 3G was announced, I was hell bent on getting one.

So, I get up early in the morning and purposely walk Butch to the ATT store close to my house (Steinway Street, Astoria) where I see a line had formed of about twenty people. The time is 6:15 am. So I come home, shower, get dressed, eat breakfast and kiss my wife and daughter goodbye and head off to the ATT store. I figure I'll be there by 7:30 am. Bad idea.

The line has since quadrupled. I walk to the back of the line and decide to wait it out. So 8:00 am comes around and the store opens but the line hardly budges. Apparently, the store only has four employees and they're taking a few people at a time. By 8:45 am, they are sold out. A manager comes out to make the announcement that we can sign up to reserve an iPhone from the next shipment. I don't bother to hear him out. I step off line and head to the subway.

I purposely get off at the 5th Avenue stop so I can see what's going on at the crack den err, the Apple store. Well, the line is around the block and is moving at a snails pace. I contact my friend Josh and we decide we'll try to get it later in the day.

My friend Louis texts me to tell me that Apple is having problems with activation. Lucky me. I head to work.

The day flies by. Josh and I agree to meet on the line. He informs me that if we get on line by 6:00 pm. It should only take 2 - 3 hours. I meet up with him on the line at 6:30 pm. We are somewhere in the middle of 58th street between 5th and Madison.

You see this part of the line lulls the sheep, err consumers into a false sense of security because it appears to move fast. You think you'll be in the store in no time. WRONG. Once you get to 5th Avenue and turn right, you end up entering the "Snake". This is where the line turns into one of those snaking lines you usually see at a bank. Problem is this line snakes around THREE times before ending up in front of the store. To put in perspective, we enter the Snake at around 7:30 pm. We would not enter the store until 11:15 pm. At this point all I care about is getting the phone before midnight.

Once in the store, we have to wait in line for another 40 minutes. This is the activation line. You get one on one service with an Apple store employee who gets your phone and any accessories and activates the phone. I end up getting the phone at around 3 minutes to midnight. The activation process is mercifully quick..only 15 minutes. So, I end up having everything done by 12:20 am. This includes the 16gb black and a new cradle.