A Fond Farewell To NYC

So it's been a long time since I have last posted something. I am sorry about that, but as I will explain, it is for good reason. Very shortly after the last post I wrote about slowing down and getting an internship, I was offered a great job. The only catch: it was back in Colorado, where I grew up. After a lot of thought and soul searching, I decided that the right choice was to take the position back in Colorado, a dream position and wonderful opportunity, versus trying to struggle through here in New York.

While it is sad in some ways (I love NY and will miss the city and friends), it is a great opportunity in others. But with that, it means that the blog will no longer be able to continue for me. Now if there is anyone else out there with the means and ways to continue this, I would love to pass the baton. In the short life of the blog, it brought me a lot of joy and a great way to keep my moral up while here in New York. I met a lot of cool people, did a bunch of strange things, and enjoyed every minute of it. I say thank you to all the people who helped be put this together and run it while I was going along, and am truly sorry to be letting you down. I wish you all the best, and if any of you are in Colorado let me know, I'll always be ready for a fun day.

Slowing Things Down

Morning everyone. I hope you are doing well. Unfortunately there is no new Make My Day today. This is due to a couple of reasons. First, I caught a cold last Thursday, and am still feeling the affects of it, which put me out of commission until this morning. No bueno. The other reason there is no post is because of a feeling that I have been arguing with over the last couple of days. As you may know, I got myself a job! Now it's not quite what I am looking for now, because it is considered an internship, and I get paid an internship wage. This has presented a problem for me, because with the money I will make in this internship, if I do not find a full time position by the end of the internship in December, I will be out of money and will probably have to leave NYC. So what does this mean? It means I am probably going to need to get myself another part-time job to stay afloat. Bartender? Waiter? I am not sure right now.

This means that my time that will be available for this blog will diminish, with probably only 1-2 stories a week. It makes me sad, but I think it is the only way it can go right now. This has been so much fun so far, but sometimes you gotta think realistically. So I want to thank everyone for their support thus far, and continue to stay tuned to Make My Day. Thanks everyone.

Chivalry Isn't Dead, Yet

That is right, friends, chivalry isn't dead, yet, as this blog brings you back to back feel good posts. But I don't think chivalry gets the same response today as it would have during any other generation. Side note: if you could pick when you were born and could live 100 years, when would you be born? I think I would be born in 1850 to see the last of the wild west, expansion, roaring 20's, and close it all out with World War II. What about you?

Today's suggestion was from last week's vote to act as chivalrous as possible in a day and see if people respond positively or negatively. This one was a little tough, merely for the fact I was unsure of how to go about this in a substantial way. But I thought I could try to make it a little better by also trying to do as many good deeds as possible, maybe try to make someone's day. Sure I can hold doors, but how do I really connect with people? This took some thought, but I gave it a go. There aren't too many photos today because it was hard to capture the good stuff, so today will be sensory.

I started out the day by riding the subway during rush hour. Anyone who has taken the New York City subway during rush hour knows that it is terrible. It is so crowded and people are in awful moods and it is just not pleasant, especially if you can't find a seat. So what I did is got on a train near the beginning of the route, promising myself a seat, then waited till it got crowded and then gave up my seat to a nice lady who looked like she could take a load off. It worked perfectly, as she had a cain and two grocery bags with her, and as soon as I let her sit, I could tell her day became just a little bit better. She even called me sugar. Perfect.

A good way to start the day, and there was so much left to go, because before I could even leave the station to head back home, I found a lady waiting outside the subway station wondering if someone could swipe her into the subway. Now I am not sure if this is legal to do for someone or not, but I figured on a day like today, karma is going to flow with me, and I am not going to get busted. Now this lady seemed like no one had listened to her plea at all, so when I offered to help her out, it startled her a little bit. Success again! Two for two on a day of good, and, no trouble from the police.

Next up was a little bit of environmental chivalry. I picked up some trash all around my street. Now, I live in an area that is pretty well maintained, but there is still a lot of loose stuff that goes tumbling down the street. So I thought, I'll clean it up. A cigarette butt here, a water bottle there. Before I knew it, I had a bag full of trash, and a cleaner street. Three for three.

But soon my hot streak came back down to earth and I got an understanding of why people aren't as into chivalry as before. This is because I may have come up with a couple of poor ideas. The first one was to head down to Battery Park near the Statue of Liberty, and try to hand out compliments. Everyone likes to complimented, so giving them out with a handy sign that says FREE COMPLIMENTS should be easy right? Nope. People looked at me with crazy eyes. I didn't talk to ONE person in 45 minutes. Weak sauce, New York. Weak. 3 for 4.

Feeling a bit bummed, I headed up North a bit to our local Trader Joes. We only have one in NYC, and it is conveniently located near NYU. I actually got an email from someone saying I should offer to carry groceries for people leaving Trader Joes because they haul their 7 full grocery bags 20 blocks. This seemed like a nice thing to do, so I thought I would give it a go. Once again. Epic failure. Post this idea on failblog. It didn't work mainly for the fact that people probably thought I was going to kill them. Now while I was offering a nice gesture, all they saw was some dude standing out in front of a grocery store waiting around, then offering to help carry their bags back to their apartment........not going to happen. Not a great thought process on my part. No one took me up on this, and I don't blame them. I probably wouldn't have accepted my own help. Plus, a little while through this, I remembered a news story I heard about a couple weeks ago about a serial killer who was following ladies home from the laundromat or grocery store, then killing them. Oh boy. I needed to get out of there before someone reported me. So I walked as quickly as possible and ran back home with my tail between my legs. 3 for 5.

Back to back strike outs here. I needed something to redeem the day, and I had the perfect plan. Coffee. Everyone likes it. Some people are addicted. I enjoy it every once in a while, but today, I was going to get a lot of enjoyment out of this. Here was my plan: buy people coffee. Now rather than looking like a creeper again standing next to a counter and saying 'hey, I'll buy that for you', I thought of a different approach that was probably more affective. I set up shop in the little cafe down my block, and gave the people working there the lowdown of the day's mission. They were intrigued, and asked how they could help. I gave them 20 bucks, and told them to put the next number of coffees on my tab, and when people ask why, just to point over to me and say he is buying them today. This way people didn't feel super awkward right away and could come over and say hi whenever. Prefect plan. I got my own table, and actually started working on my standup routine that I will hopefully do next week. Then, every once in a while, someone would come up to me and ask 'uh, did you buy my coffee?'. Yes ma'am I did. I told them I just wanted to do something nice for people, and I hoped it brightened their day. It worked. I talked to about 7 people who all were so nice and appreciative. One lady said she wanted to cry it was so nice (please don't make a scene). After it was all said and done, I bought 7 coffees and 2 cokes for people, and talked to all but two of them (I think they thought it was some kind of scam and ran out of the store as quick as possible). It was a lot of fun to sit and talk with these random people who were so nice. Made me feel good inside. 4 for 6 friends.

With this coffee experience, I decided to end on a high note. And why not. It was a lot of fun and everyone enjoyed it. I think I learned that you do get when you give to others. Maybe it is not a one for one trade, but it's a barter system. Thanks for reading along, and happy Friday.

Did I Just Faint? I Think I Fainted

Gather around the fireplace friends. Grab your blanket, glass of wine, and your tissues, because this is the beginning of back to back days of feel good stories. But let's take one day at a time. Today's suggestion was a kind of last minute addition to the schedule. It came from my good friend Casey B. in San Francisco, who forwarded me a very interesting email a coupe days ago. A person at Casey's job has a friend here in New York who was looking for a little help. The email said:

A friend within our industry, Jean-Paul, has a young boy, Alex, who is 4 years old and was diagnosed with leukemia in April. He will be undergoing a life-saving transplant in the beginning of October. He really needs to have blood and platelets on hand for the days ahead of and the months following the transplant. In the past, he has had to wait for platelets since there are so few available. I am hoping that you would be so kind and generous to donate your blood/platelets to Alex. The transplant will take place at Sloan-Kettering the week of 9/28/2009. Alex will be in the hospital for 2 months following the transplant (through the end of November).

How could I not help out, right? These kinds of stories are really hard for me to swallow sometimes because someone so young is facing such tremendous hardships. I do not even know this young guy, but I feel it's something you have to do if you can (If anyone else reading this in NY can give blood for this kid, let me know I'll tell you where to give at). I felt as though giving blood was the least I could do, even though every aspect of giving blood scared me. Let's just say that there are few things that scare more in life than needles and blood, and when those two come together, it's like a perfect storm of scary, except Mark Wahlberg is nowhere to be found. This is why, until today, I had NEVER given blood before. Never. So much fear. But sometimes in life, you just have to face the fear. Ride the wave. Jump the tiger. I don't think that last one is a saying.

After a hearty breakfast 2 hours before my appointment (recommended) and two glasses of water (own recommendation), I headed off to the hospital. A quick side story here. Sandra was going to come along with me for the documentary, but as it turns out, hospitals don't like video cameras. In fact, if you bring one in and/or video ANYTHING around a hospital, they will throw you in the window-less room in the basement of the hospital for an hour. Seriously. Long story short, they didn't quite understand that she was just making a documentary and not video-taping for some giant conspiracy project. And she didn't get any footage. Yowza.

So I was on my own for this adventure, just me, the nurses, and 6 pages of very personal questionnaires. Seriously have I done intravenous drugs or slept with someone who has taken intravenous drugs in the last month? Hell no! I don't think if there was a person who marked yes in this type of category, giving blood would be their top priority for the day. It's actually probably the opposite of what they want: stuff coming out of their veins. Anyway, I digress.

After filling out this pile of work and getting my finger poked for a blood sample (it really hurt), I headed back to the donor room. Now looking at the place initially, it looked pretty awesome. Nice big comfy chairs, free snacks, and your own television. Sounded fun, until I remembered the whole blood thing. I met nurse Karen who set me all up and walked me through how it was going to work. She said she gets a lot of newbies, and it will be easy breezy. The key is to not think about it too much. And don't faint. After the talk, she was ready to start, and I got ready for the 'little pinch and slight burning' I was about to feel on my arm. Ready. Go! It was in and before I knew it blood was shooting out my vein like there was no tomorrow. And since this kind of made me sick to my stomach to see, I kept my attention on SportsCenter.

While I was giving, there was an older lady across from me also giving blood. I could tell she was quite nervous as well, because ANY time the machine she was hooked up to beeped, clicked, or even hummed, she would yell out to the nurse 'Ah! It just beeped! Is it broken?!?! Am I going to be okay?!?!'. Just a bit of nervous tension, but kept me entertained till my bag 'o blood was full. Almost over Patrick. Karen came by and began the shut down phase. Clamp the hose, weigh the bag, take testing samples, then out with the needle. I was all good until that needle came out, then all of a sudden vision started shrinking and i felt like I was floating. The last thing I remember was saying something like, 'I feel light hea.....'. I was out. Fainted. In another world. For the life of me I cannot remember the dreams I had, but I felt like I was out for a year. Then all of a sudden, I heard this voice muttering my name. It sounded like it was from heaven. God? I heard it again. Hello? Then boom. Back to the hospital with two nurses standing over me saying my name with the crazy old lady yelling from across the room, 'Is he okay?!?! Did he die?!?! Ah! My machine just hummed!!' It took me a second to figure out where I was and what was going on, and then realizing, wait, did I just faint? Yes indeed. I did. The lovely nurses gave me an ice pack and started giving me juice to bring myself back to it. After about 2 minutes I felt fine again, but normal protocol is you have to keep someone for 45 minutes if they faint, just in case. Once again, thank goodness for SportsCenter.

After my waiting time and 4 checks of my pulse, Karen let me out into the world. I did it. I was less in blood but more in moral. I felt on top of the world. I felt about a pound lighter. Success. My heart truly goes out to Alex and his family, and I hope that this small amount of blood will be helpful over your entire process. I will be thinking about you often, and I will keep you in my prayers for your health. Thank you Casey for a great suggestion.

Today I start my job! It's an internship, but it is a start. I am really excited, so will let you know how it goes. I have one request of you. Start conversations with your family, coworkers, friends, worst enemy, or strangers about this blog, and come up with a couple suggestions and send them in. It will help get the word out there, and brain-storming is always fun. Thanks everyone. Have a great day.