The Last Day in the D

I was able to enjoy my last night in the D with my friends. My friend Feras is moving into the city of Detroit any day now (as soon as his furniture arrives). Tom, my brother and I headed over to his empty solace prior to heading out for a few drinks. He has a really nice view facing the city. I give him props for heading back to the city. Some people think it doesn't make sense. I think he is doing a great thing. If I still lived in Detroit, I would be doing the same.

After leaving his place, we headed downtown to the Town Pump. It was slightly packed when we went down there. I thought it would be more packed than it was because it was the night of the Motor City Bowl. It did start picking up after awhile. It was good to catch up with Tom. I had not seen him all week because he was sick as a dog.

Tom and I have a long history together. You could say he is one of my oldest friends. We played soccer together at Queen of Peace from 1st Grade until 4th grade until my school, St Jude had school had soccer. We would see each other when we played soccer, but we went to rival high schools. About halfway through my first semester at school, this guy across the hallway asked if I was Chris Cansiani. And he told me he was Tom Koch. And we have been very good friends since then.

After a while we attempted to find a change of scenery, so we attempted to head to a few other bars. Half of them were closed. It was quite surprising...Oh well, we ended up at a dive bar where three drinks cost $10. Pretty, pretty good...

View from Feras's place

Another view from Feras's place

Christmas Day

The day started off early as we headed to my Grandma's house for breakfast. My grandma is 85 years old and lives on her own. She is a trooper and enjoy hearing her stories of her time in the old country (Italy). She has seemed a lot better than the last time I was in. She has had bouts of memory loss and will repeat things occasionally. I did not see much of that this time.

After that I watched the Piston kill the Spurs on the less marketed game of the day. I'm sure the NBA is pissed that the two best teams are smaller markets than their ideal markets.

People started to pile in to my parents house, my Aunt Theresa, Uncle Bruce, my cousins Marisa and Bob, my sister Sue, brother-in-law Paul, nieces, Alexis and Paige, brother Kevin and his girlfriend Kate, Uncle Anthony and Aunt Virginia. My brother and mom bonded by making gnocchi on Friday, which was the start of our dinner. We all sat in my parents basement and I soaked in being with family for the holidays. It was really good to be home and with family! I did my best to try to catch up with everybody.

After dinner we opened up presents. Everybody opened their gifts with smiles on their face. It seems that everybody did a good job buying for everyone. But the best gift I recieved this Christmas was being here at this moment. This has not necessarily been the easiest Christmas for me and being home was extra special for me. So thank you everyone for contributing for this gift!

Sue, Kevin, Grandma, and me

Bruce and Teresa

Anthony, Bruce, Sue, and Teresa

Kevin, the girls, and me

Anthony Grandma, Mom, and Teresa

Grandma, Alexis, and Paige

Vegging after dinner

Kevin and Kate

Close up on the chocolates

Smile Aunt Teresa

Dinner at the Cansiani's

Dinner at the Cansiani's

Serving the gnoochi

Christmas Eve

I would not normally have written a separate Christmas Eve and Christmas blog, but each one has a deserving story.

Earlier in the week, my dad had told me about a cousin of his that he had recently been in touch with invited him and his family to Christmas Eve. I didn't know what to expect, since I have not met them in the 30 years that I have been on this earth. But I told him that I would go. Right when we pulled up to their house and walked towards the door, I instantly felt at home by my 2nd cousin, Janis. I felt like I had known her all my life. Then, my cousin Dolly had walked in about 5 minutes later. She ran over and gave me a hug. They talked about how much I looked like my dad, which I do.

This was definitely a Christmas treat that I will never forget. The feast that Janis, Dolly, and Jan's daughter, Kelly had prepared was unbelieveable. We started out with an array of Italian appertizers and various dips. Then the dinner was comprised of several seafood entrees, one just as good as the others. The final piece was homemade cannolis. Quite delictible. But, again, the most important part of the night was hanging out with family. Family is the piece of the puzzle that makes the holidays so good. And now I have even more family to come home to.

Christmas Eve at Janis's

Dinner at Janis's

Pistons game

I love the Pistons and couldn't be happier that the Pistons are doing awesome to date. I was lucky to have my friend Feras invite me to the Pistons game. His company has a suite that they get to use occasionally. He had an extra ticket to go to the game. Of course, I couldn't turn it down. As an added bonus, it was Friday Flashbacks, where they honored Joe Dumars, my favorite Piston and present GM, by putting his name on the court. As an added added bonus they were giving away Joe Dumars figurines.

It was yet another win. It's so funny how business is conducted. Most of the people in the suite were co-workers of Feras, with a few clients mixed in there. You can't get as excited as you normally would as if you were with your friends. It's more of a (surprise) business atmosphere. I did cheer loudly a few times, nonetheless. The Pistons improved to a solid 21-3, the best record in the NBA! Here are some pics.

Pistons in action

Joe D being honored at halftime

The Stones pumping themselves up before heading onto the court

Ben shooting free throws

Christmas Party

I would like to thank everybody who attended my Christmas/Birthday party. I had a blast! It was good to catch up with everybody. I love how you can come back home after several months and just pick up where you left off. I look forward to see everybody again, whether it is in Detroit or somewhere else.

First night in the D

So we went out for Augie's birthday. The girl he brought was hamboned and on a few other things. At our final stop, when we are waiting for Augie's date from leaving the bathroom. Then the night got interesting. Across the way, Anil thought he recognized a girl. It was a girl that my friend Mike liked after college. For the life of me, I couldn't remember her. They kept telling me situations where I would have saw her, but it did not help me remember her. Really quickly, one of the stories was she was at Addams Family Values the same show we were at. We didn't see her face and then all of the sudden her face would reappear from her boyfriend's lap. Then she said, "Hi Mike". Mike fell in love with her and he pursued her at several U of Detroit parties. He was at a party and he didn't want to pursue this girl because he was in love with another hoe, Lynette.

Anyhoo, this girl, her name is Theresa LaFranca, walked to the bathroom, which happened to be right in our path. Augie yelled her name. She started to talk to us and she started to hit on Augie. Then I caught Augie in some comprimising positions. I have attached the pics. We made sure to email the pictures to Mike. I have attached the pics. Oh, and then she asked to touch my camera. Because it is new, I do not want strangers to touch it. I told her not to touch my camera. She thought I said I don't want her to touch me. The truth is I probably didn't, but I repeated that I didn't want her to touch my camera and then she turned away and was offended. Deal with it!

Augie's post porn hug 

Augie and his comprimising threesome... 

Augie and his wasted date. 

Why Johnny????

Dear Mr. Damon,
You were my favorite player. Now I cannot like you because you have donned the pinstripes of the Evil Empire! Wait, I can't be made at you. You are a good player. I am going to blame the Red Sox, for being cheapskates and not offering you the additional year. I will still be a Johnny Damon fan, but I will be rooting for the Yanks to lose every game.
Chris

The Tran$it Strike

I never thought I would see as many people as I did walking during the Blackout of 2003, but it happened! But this time it was in the winter, rather than the summer. I unfortunately had to go into my office in Times Square. I would have rather have worked from home, but my prescence needed to be known at the office. It was my last day before my vacay, so it could have been worse and I could have had to deal with it all week. But, it definitely wasn't.

The night before I was praying that they would hold of the transit strike for at least one additional day, until I was gone. I had been in denial and had not made the proper preparation in order to find a ride for my flight, which was to happen on Tuesday night around 8 pm. To make matters worse, I had lost one of my credit cards and it was supposed to be delivered to my bank in Times Square on Tuesday also. Another reason that I had to go to my office. When I finally went to bed at 12:30 am on Monday night, Roger Toussant, the head of the Transit Workers Union, had left the Hyatt with no agreement.

So I woke up in the morning listening to WNYC on the latest from the transit. There was a strike. I had made the decision to go into work, but not bring my luggage because I was not sure if I would have been able to grab a cab or I was going to have to walk 50 blocks. Luckily, I live at 91st street. At 96th street between the hours of 5 am and 11 am every car entering Manhattan, whether it be via Queens, Brooklyn, the Jers, Staten Island, or Harlem had to have 4 passengers (Funny side note: If you were pregnant, you counted as two, seriously. I wonder if you were having triplets, would you not need to have any passengers?). I decided that my best bet is to head to 96th street and get in a cab. I was not sure exactly how much, but it was going to be a share a ride, and I figure it not to be astronically high.

When I walked up to 96th street, they had police checkpoints at every avenue entering the city surrounded by blockades. People would get out at 96th street and others who were going into Manhattan were getting in. I hopped in a taxi minivan and the cab driver instructed us of how much it would be. It all depended on where you were going in the city. Because I was only going to 42nd street, my fee was $15. It was a very joyous cab ride. In a city that is sometimes so cold from a personal standpoint, people were quite festive and upbeat considering the circumstances. As I arrived at my destination about 30 minutes later, I wished everyone a happy holidays and good luck.

Most of the people were at work by the time I was there. If you did not live in one of the five New York City boroughs, then you had a much easier and cheaper manner of arrive in Manhattan. I was hoping to get out of work by 1 so I would not have to worry about getting to the airport at night. I was stressing out a little bit. I had been on literally every mode of transportation to the airport and to no surprise, everything was unavailable. You could get a cab, but it was $30/person to get to LaGuardia, but because I wasn't travelling with someone else, my odds were not going to be as good of getting a cab. You see from the cabbie's point of view, he could make much more money in the city, which would be a much shorter distance than heading to the airport, which is in Queens. I knew I would have to do a little negotiating when the time came.

I finally left work at 4:00. I was pressing my luck. I was able to find a cab a few blocks away from my work. My flight was still at 7:50, so I still had plenty of time. Traffic was a little slow at first. I was talking to the cab driver and he said that it took him and hour to get from 72nd and Broadway to 42nd and Broadway. I was a little more stressed. We had picked somebody up along the way and traffic was running a little smoother. Less stressed. I live at 91st and 3rd, she was at 51st and 1st. No problem, since I figured it would be easier to go up 1st Ave anyway. Once we dropped her off, traffic started to hit us. I was starting to get stressed again. I was hoping that it was the traffic for the Queensboro Bridge, which was at 59th street. It was. Once we hit 61st street, we were flying! Stress level down! Now all I had to worry about was hailing a cab to go to the airport.

I grabbed a slice of pizza on the way home and made sure everything was packed. It was 4:45. I wanted to be outside by 5:30, just in case I had a hard time hailing a cab. I met my deadline and headed downstairs. Roy wished me luck and Merry Christmas. I did the same, luck that he did not have to endure this transit strike too much. One guy stopped and he told me $60. I passed because I still I had plenty of time. The same thing happened again about 10 minutes later. It was cold outside and I didn' t have the patience at that point, so I agreed. I arrived at the airport with plenty of time and I was off to the D. So long transit strike, hello hometown!

I have attached a link that you can check out other people's stories.
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20051220_STRIKE_MAP_READERS.html