Author: LaMarGoti

Mary came to visit!

Posted on by LaMarGoti

So today I didn’t exactly “travel”. My friend Mary flew out from Denver to visit for a week. Mary and I met while studying abroad in Ireland, details of that adventure can be found here. I spent last night on Long Island at my grandma’s house so I would be closed to JFK to get Mary since she flew in on the red eye. So I picked Mary up and we drove back to CT so she could shower and drop her stuff off at my house.

After that I took Mary on a mini drive through Ridgefield, I mean, what could I really show her besides Main Street? We grabbed breakfast at Steve’s then got coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts before heading to Goldens Bridge to get the train to the city. We spent all morning catching up, which wasn’t too much since we’ve kept in pretty good contact since we’ve been home from Ireland.

The first thing we did in the city was to go down to Wall Street. Mary’s in finance and it made me excited that she wanted to see the financial district (tell tale sign that I’m growing up? I think so). So we saw the NYSE, Trinity Church (commonly known as being the church from National Treasure), the Wall Street bull (which is actually at Bowling Green), Battery Park and Ground Zero. It was weird being at Ground Zero, especially since its in a state of disarray and in my opinion it looked more like something when there was still a pile of debris there, not a construction site that we have sitting there.

We then ventured a walk uptown to SoHo and were fortunate to beat the rain to our location. it started to drizzle a few blocks from where we were headed and we walked into SoHo Park maybe 30 seconds before it began to downpour. SoHo Park is a great little burger joint that is so reasonably priced; I suggest you all try it someday if you ever need a burger in the area.

Then we headed to midtown and took a walk down 5th Ave. we saw the Empire State building and I showed Mary where I work. After our little walk, we headed to Grand Central to take the subway up to the new Yankee Stadium. We were going to the game with another friend from Ireland, Tim, his girlfriend and some of their friends from home. We first went over to Billy’s before the game started and I must say, I rather liked the bar. It’s a great place for drinks near the stadium. Unfortunately the Yankees did lose on Thursday, but I had a good time nonetheless.

Not only was it my first time at the new stadium, but it was my first time taking the train home from the stadium. I was a bit skeptical of how well the whole system would work since I’m not on the Hudson line, but it was really easy and I have definitely found my new way to get to and from the stadium.

something borrowed

Posted on by LaMarGoti

I have spent this evening (and night) catching up on the blogs that I follow. For the past four years or so, I have been following Frank Warren’s Post Secret. Reading other people’s secrets really does make you realize that you are not alone.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about how everyone has an online identity. When Facebook announced that people could get their own unique web addresses for their FB profiles, I knew immediately what mine was going to be. I have the same name for pretty much everything I do in the way of social networking. Yes, this is beneficial because I can use a unique name on many sites and it makes it much easier to keep everything together. But in thinking about this, I started to wonder if this is going to affect society in the future. After I die, will this blog still be here? Will my great-grandchildren be able to read this and see what life was like now?

I’m getting tired and need sleep before work tomorrow, so I will come back to this topic soon and blog about it some more, but before I say much more, I want to mull over my thoughts that have been going through my mind since I saw a video that Frank posted on this week’s Sunday Secrets and I hope that you all watch it and think about where society is heading. I still don’t know if I really feel this is a good thing or not. And I’m not sure society will know that answer until long after we are all dead.

a month after going awol

Posted on by LaMarGoti

It’s been far too long since my last post. Life has been just so crazy lately, but crazy in a good way.

Work has been crazy busy and stressful but I got a new position that I started last week. I really like my new job and enjoy what I am doing more than what i had been doing. A whole bunch of my friends finally are back home, or were home briefly, and I spent a lot of time with them catching up and just enjoying. Plus the weather had been great on the weekends, and therefore I spent as much time as possible outside getting my vitamin D intake.

This past weekend I went on a retreat with the youth group that I work with. It was in the middle of New York at Camp Deerpark. I really enjoyed this retreat as it was not one in which all the Core Team (the adults who work with our youth group) had to ‘work’ all weekend and put on a retreat for the students. This was for all of us. It was only for the graduating seniors, college kids and the Core and we were all there as retreatants. Not only was this weekend good for me because it has allowed me to kick start my spiritual life back into gear, but it reminded me who much happier I am and how less stressful life can be.

This weekend we split into three small groups and each group had different books we read and discussed. My group consisted of my friends Dylan and Andy, a new Core member Sherry and a senior, Jen. Since I did a bible study with Dylan and Andy last summer, I was a bit used to these type of small group discussions with the guys. Sherry is very new to the Core and I didn’t really have a chance to get to know her much until this weekend. Same with Jen; even though she has been in the youth group all year, and she had my name for secret Santa (she made me an awesome drawing that is hanging on my bedroom wall), I never really had a real conversation with Jen until this weekend. We read What Does GOD Want? by Michael Scanlan, T.O.R. This book was exactly what I needed right now; perhaps that is why I picked this track as one of my top choices for the weekend. While we did not have time to finish the last three chapters (which I am working on reading this week), we read each chapter as a group and discussed. The whole book is “a practical guide to making decisions”. While I have sometimes been able to figure out what God is asking me to do in my life, there are many times that I do not want to head in the direction He is taking me. By thinking about it and discussing this weekend, I was able to realize that there are many other things the God is asking me to do that I either ignore or do not attribute to Him. I have decided to make a conscious effort from now on to first decide what God is asking me to do and to put that ahead of my won agenda.

Aside from learning about making decisions, and making the right ones, I also made a decision about how to handle the stress at work in my life. Friday was a very stressful day at work, even though I took the morning off to see Dave Matthews Band perform live on the Today Show. It was such a long afternoon at work and when I left at 5PM I was in no mood to see anyone, but I knew that I needed to put it all behind me so I could experience the most from my retreat. By putting it behind me and leaving the stress that work causes at work, I was able to have one of the best weekends in a long time. I realized that not thinking about work when I’m not there makes everything less stressful. It’s not like I have work that I need to be doing away from the office, so why should I bother and let the stress my job can sometimes cause become a factor and take away from the rest of my life? So after not thinking about work for the entire weekend, I went to work this Monday morning with the plan that I was not going to let work stress me out and I was not going to stress over any of it when I was not in the office. By doing this for the week, I feel like an enormous weight has been removed from my shoulders. The combination of this and my new position have allowed me to enjoy everything else, including my reading. I was able to re-read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in the past 8 days, though I read nothing Friday-Sunday. This was a great surprise that I still am able to get through the books quickly as I have every intention to re-read books 3-6 before Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince hits theatres, and then I will re-read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to finish out the series, yet again.

But it seems that I am getting off on a tangent as I am tired and still must finish packing as I am headed to Boston this weekend for the Great Boston Beer Marathon with some friends from college. It should be rather a fun experience.

a year later

Posted on by LaMarGoti

Exactly one year ago I graduated from college. 100 days before that I blogged about what lay ahead…I didn’t know(it’s actually my first blog here). I had no idea where I was going to be and what I was going to be doing after college came to an end. Well graduation came and went, and I still didn’t know any of it. I stayed in Boston for a day or two and then moved back to Connecticut to try and figure it out. Today I am sitting here still trying to figure it out. I’m beginning to think that nothing is ever going to be as easy as it once was.

Life used to be simple, regardless of how I felt at the time. Years ago life was so simple that I didn’t even have to pick out my clothes. When I was little mom did everything for me. She put my hair in rollers every day for over a year because I wanted curly hair like her. My outfit was picked out for me every day. My play dates were set up for me. The biggest decision that faced me was what snack I wanted after school. As I grew up I started becoming more responsible for some of my own decisions. I picked out my own outfits. I decided what sports I wanted to play.

Regardless of the decisions I made, life was relatively simple. Everything was laid out and the next stage in life was going to come as soon as it was due. I went from “My” Nursery School to Veterans Park to East Ridge to Ridgefield High without thinking about anything. I received penance, my First Holy Communion and Confirmation when the nuns decided it was going to happens. I got my license 120 days after I turned 16 because that’s when I was allowed to get it. Even when it was time for me to make the first real decision in life I knew that I was still going to move onto the next stage. Just over five years ago I needed to decide where to go to college. It took me four months to decide, but I knew that no matter what I was going to college. I always kept taking the next step in the path of life.

When I was three-years-old, I decided I wanted to be like my dad and become a lawyer. When I was eight-years-old, I decided I wanted to be a sports lawyer. When I started looking at colleges, I looked at good business schools with Economics majors. Why did I want to be an Econ major? Because when I started looking at schools I learned that Econ majors tend to score highest on the LSATs. I took AP Econ in high school because that would help if I wanted to major in it. I never took a single Econ class in college. I was 19-years-old when I realized I was on a path I had set out for myself when I was three-years-old and that I never once questioned where I was headed. I changed my major a couple times, got some internships and just kept going.

The other day I realized that I don’t know where I’m headed. I’m not the path I picked when I was three-years-old. I was on that path for so long, I don’t know what all my other options are. I know I’m on a path and I’m headed somewhere but I have no idea where that somewhere is.

465 days ago I hoped to land on my feet after being thrown out into the great big world. I can’t say I stuck the landing, but at least I seem to be holding my own for now. Looking back, it’s weird to see how much I’ve changed since then, but how much I’m still the same person. The last 100 days of college was crazy; so much happened in a short period of time and it flew by. The last 365 days, my first year in the “real world” have been crazy; so much has happened and it’s flown by. I wasn’t ready for the real world then and I’m still not ready for all of it even now that I’m there. I miss the comfort of knowing what lies ahead but I thrive for the unknown. I may not know what lies ahead or where I’m headed but I have figured out some things.

  • I thought I had 100 days to grow up. I have know realized it’s not necessary to grow up and change. It’s important to stay true to being young and having fun, otherwise, how are you going to make it through all the tough stuff that the real world has in store for each of us?
  • I thought I needed to be prepared for the real world. I’ve learned that no matter what, you will never be prepared for everything. But that’s what makes it fun. Every day there’s a new challenge ahead and something new to learn.
  • I thought that the real world would just kinda flow along as everything else always has. I could never be more wrong. I need to work for everything. All the little things in life and everything I always took for granted now mean a lot to me and I value what is truly important in life: time spent with friends and family and doing things you believe in.

So here’s to tomorrow, to learning new things, to overcoming challenges, to staying young while growing older, and here’s to the rest; it’s going to come whether I’m ready or not.

society as it drives me crazy

Posted on by LaMarGoti

so this week i have decided that there are a few things that i really don’t get about people in society…

one, why don’t people understand how to use umbrellas without driving everyone else crazy? are golf umbrellas that could easily fit 3 people under them really necessary when it is barely drizzling? i understand that people want to use golf umbrellas instead of the little compact ones when it is pouring and you have a computer bag and everything else that you lug to work, but if you use one, then please know how to use it. watch where you are swinging your umbrellas when you use them. and watch where they are swinging when you are using your gold umbrella as a make shift cane because you really don’t have any other place for it, but please never carry it under your arm so it hits everyone when you take a step in any which direction. and if you have a golf umbrella and are 6′ 2″, then you can raise your umbrella the whole 3 inches so that you don’t hit my umbrella when i’m walking down the sidewalk.

why does everyone find it necessary to use elevators in the city? to get onto and off of the train track at my station, you need climb the stairs to get into the waiting area and then go down another set to get to the track. it’s really not that many stairs and it really bothers me to see people not use the stairs. i understand if you have a stroller, or if you are elderly, or if you have a bunch of bulky stuff or anything, but really, if you are not using the stairs for the mere fact that you are lazy and slightly overweight, please give me a break. really, if you used the stairs every once in a while, you could loose some of that weight and then the stairs wouldn’t be as difficult for you. it also bothers me that i work on the 8th floor and have to take an elevator every time i go to and from my office.  yes, 8 floors is enough to use an elevator. especially when you have to go to the lobby and into a different elevator well to get to the rest of our offices on the 26th floor, but it would be nice to be able to use stairs once in a while. and yes, there are stairs, it’d be illegal not to have some, but they are not easily accessible nor are they able to be used unless there is actually a fire. and if i really think about it, i don’t even know that there are stairs in most public buildings in the city, the only place i could even tell you there are stairs is grand central and any two story bars.

do you really not know that the blue bins with circular holes cut out on top are for recycling glass, plastic and cans, not for garbage? they say that it is for recycling on the bins. i mean, people get that those huge metal crate things in grand central that say “newspapers only” are for newspapers only. i hate watching people throw their random garbage out in recycling bins. do you not get that we all need to be more green? and when there are recycling bins available, can you not take an additional two steps to throw your soda bottle in there instead of in the garbage?

stop hogging the media

Posted on by LaMarGoti

The swine flu.

I don’t want to hear about the swine flu anymore. It’s everywhere, even church. I got an e-mail today from the pastor of my Church informing all the eucharistic ministers that we are not going to be distributing wine during communion or having the sign of peace during mass until the swine flu epidemic passes. While many people agree that this is a good idea and are happy to hear that the Church is taking whatever actions necessary to ensure that people stay healthy, I feel this is taking it one step too far. It’s not mandatory to receive the blood during mass, so why does it matter? If you don’t want to risk it, then don’t take the blood. Or you can be like me and realize that we always have a threat of getting sick.
It’s allergy season too. So on the train I become very entertained when people sitting around me get scared and try to scoot away from anyone with one sniffle or a little cough. Apparently some people now think that absolutely everyone who is not 100% healthy has the swine flu.
And what angers me the most is the naive people. Like Russia banning imports on pork from Mexico, most other Latin America countries and what I believe has grown to 13 states. You cannot get the swine flu from eating pork. In fact, the CDC is now referring to it as the H1N1 flu in attempts to keep it as separate from the pork industry as they can.
But it’s not just that people are over reacting that bothers me. I would like to know more about what is going on in the world right now. How many people know about the situation in Sri Lanka? What about the latest in the piracy in the Gulf of Aden? Or how our troops overseas are doing? Why do we always need to hear about one thing and only one thing in the news?

I’m back

Posted on by LaMarGoti

So I have been thinking about this for a while and I have decided I really do want to come back and start blogging again. I know I’ve said this before, but the last few months I have had a strong urge to do it and at least now I have some time for it. Plus, being in the real world, I now feel that I have a lot to say about some topics.

So quick recap from my last posts…I graduated from college last May. I moved home to Connecticut and took the summer off to relax, lifeguard and figure out life. In the process of figuring out what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be, the economy plummeted and took the job market with it. In a freak turn of events, I ended up with tickets to opening night of the Rangers game with my dad; I took his phone to reply to a message from my cousin’s husband and ended up with a job. I work for a freight cargo company in Manhattan and even though its not my dream job, I have a job and I usually enjoy it. Plus I’m learning a lot about an industry I knew nothing about.

Even though I spend at least two-thirds of my day sleeping, commuting and working, I have realized that besides the college life style, Boston and of course my friends, what I really miss is the conversations I had in my sociology classes. I miss questioning why people do what they do. I miss debating what is in fact the norm. I miss having to think, like really think, about things that really matter in this world. So that’s what I’m dedicating this to; a place for me to vent and share about what I view going on in the world around me.

Pictures from California

Posted on by LaMarGoti

All my pictures are up on Shutterfly and can be found through the following links:

Pictures from San Fran: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaMWbhk4aMWToQ

Pictures from Yosemite: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaMWbhk4aMWTqY

Pictures from Carmel/Monterey: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaMWbhk4aMWTsA

BTW – some of the pictures are blurry due to all the haze and smoke from the forest fires which aren’t all too far from where we were at.

Day 11 – San Fran to Home

Posted on by LaMarGoti

Today we woke up at 8am and got ready before heading down for some breakfast. Then we came back up to finish packing everything up and left the hotel at 10:50am to head to the airport. We were checked in and sitting at the gate at 11:30am for our 2:35pm flight. I got a bunch of reading done and walked around the airport. The flight back wasn’t bad and I got the window seat.

When we got to JFK at 11:15pm, we got our luggage which seemed to take forever. Then we loaded up Mom’s car ad headed to Joan’s to drop her and Kevin off. Then Mom & Dad took me home. Now I’m off to bed as I have work at 10am in Westport.

Pictures will be up soon…I hope!

Day 10 – Carmel Valley to San Fran

Posted on by LaMarGoti

Today we were up at 8am to pack up the car and head to San Fran. We grabbed some breakfast before taking off on our drive. We had some problems near the end with our GPS, but we found the hotel in San Fran. We are back at the same Holiday Inn that we were in last week.

After checking in, we walked down to Hyde Street Pier and grabbed lunch on the Wharf. We were all cold and tired, so we headed back to the hotel to watch the movie, Firehouse Dog and get ready for the SF Giants game tonight. In the process of getting ready for the game, Kevin and Joan found that Kevin left his brand new jacket in Carmel Valley at the hotel.

We drove down to AT&T Park and watched the SF Giants loose a game to the Chicago Cubs.
After the game there were fireworks which got lost in the fog but they were still nice.

Now we are getting ready to go home in the morning…