ohhhh markus ….

so there is this automated voicemail system that keeps calling me like every 2-3 weeks.

“The warranty on your vehicle is going to expire. please act now. [...]”

and I don’t even have one. but this isn’t the creepy part. When I entered the elevator in my building like 10 minutes ago, the elevator speaker (!!!) started to talk to me: “This is your final notice that the warranty on your vehicle is going to expire”.

this is twilight zone my friends. twilight zone.

Junichi invited me over for a kind of small & private show the put up in the school he teaches ballet at. Although the school was just two subway stops outside of Manhattan it felt like a different planet, with no people on the street and only big industrial buildings and no shopping infrastructure at all (not even a Deli!).

The performances itself were very impressive, ranging from hip hop break dance, to sword fights, to classic ballet, to dance factory style choreography. And afterwards a nice organic buffet. oh, and I was the only non-asian there …

A (austrian) friend of mine works at the United Nations and invited me over to watch a spectacular documentation about how women ended a civil war in Liberia just by peer pressure and a very very strong organization (”Pray the Devil back to Hell“). After the movie there was a Q&A session with one of the main characters. Very touching and totally different world.

Afterwards I had the privilege to see the United Nations building after it closed, almost completely abandoned and gained access to areas that are normally off limits. I didn’t even have to wear the huge visitor badge and we could move freely around. It was a quite interesting experience (to say at least) to see the big halls where history is made, stand in front of the press wall you know from public broadcasts and also see how incredible bureaucratic and old fashioned the offices look.

One of my friends is a pretty awesome dancer, teaching Ballet. He invited me to this spectacular performance, taking place in a HUGE gallery space on the 9th floor of a massive old building. You step in and EVERYTHING is white, ceilings, walls, pillars. And some mannequins, showcasing amazing amazing fashion.

The performance started with dancers in the middle of all the people (although we formed a big circle to give the performers more space).

but enough said, here are the pics:

soooo I was leaving the flat this morning, heading down st.marks, when I saw this 30ish tall guy, smirking and looking around, behind him another guy recording him with a small camera while he looked around. and behind that guy a group of about 10 women.

ohh fine, a country guy visiting the city with his best friend, I thought. and guess what, when I passed him, he greeted me (”heeey, how are you doing”) and smiled to me like we were meeting in a small town. I didn’t pay much attention, returned the greeting and passed by quickly.

and then one of the women (she had a name tag), stopped me and asked me with big wide open eyes “do you have any idea who that is?” - “no” - “its blake shelton, country singer and voted one of the most sexiest man alive by people magazine.” - “ah, fine”.

I was very unimpressed, leaving a baffled woman. With this info his behaviour made much more sense, he was just used to a lot attention, NYC must quite baffle him.

the supermodel I saw on the subway 2 minutes later was much more interesting (and she had a nicer voice, too).

… when someone draws that on the floor covers we have for the bathroom renovation …

probably the niciest guy in the world got married and I was invited! Wonderful Joe and I rented a car for the ride (since it was upstate, 3 hour drive) and set up a meeting point at 12.01pm sharp on saturday.

weeeell, that was the plan.

I partied kinda long the night before and was on my way home on saturday at 11:30am (yes it was one of those nights …) when I saw a text message from Joe, sent at 5am, that he will be late and cant make 12.

In the end we left the city at 1:30ish and made it to the wedding about 20min before it started.

The ceremony was a jewish/catholic one, with quite some funny moments (best moment: the groom and bride had to repeat the sentences the rabbi said, and when it was her turn after a couple of sentences he switched to hebrew and she looked like “WHAT?” :D)

another good one, when they raised the bride and the groom on the chairs. L.O.V.E.D. that. I want that, too, at my wedding ….

anyhow, quite some night, lots of friends there, traded my ring for another one with a girl (ohh such a fabulous bling trade it was) and headed to some after party. next day we stopped at the wafflehouse (highly recommended!) for a very trashy and tasty brunch.

but ‘nough said. here are the pics.

I promised Nunu (yesyes, THE nunu, who works at the super prestigious high profile austrian “Die Presse” newspaper) to take pics from the election evening and sent it her immediately via eMail from my iPhone while I witnessing this historic moment.

And now the pics are online there! And the picture gallery got featured on their start page, too (yeah!).

But check them out HERE for yourself (sorry, text only in german).

I am famous! Faaaaaamous! You are officially allowed now to name your child after me …

I am just coming back from an election party, tired, happy, exhausted, flabbergasted.

Went there at 7pm directly from work to watch the election progress and I was very touched and impressed. There were like about 600 people at the party and everyone was very moved by the speech of Obama (as well as the one of McCain). I truly think he will be a good president, I was impressed by the sentence “we will not be able to solve all the problems in a year. Maybe not even in one term.”

After the party I went to Times Square with a friend and it was CRAZY. Cars honking, drivers high-fiving people on the street, massive amounts of people running everywhere, groups of people shouting “YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN!”. The biggest celebration across all (ethnic&social) groups I have ever seen.

Union square was no different. There was even a newspaper already stating that Obama is the new president.

Now its like 2:28am and people are still shouting and screaming outside. very impressive (and understandable).

Today I had a pretty good laugh. HR handed out letters to confirm your address. And guess what? According to the letter I live in Virginia, in a pretty swanky house next to the river. See for yourself, turn on street view and you can even see my red Porsche convertible in front of the house. Thats the LIFE!

I am kinda hesitating to correct that error ….