Category: Observed (Page 24 of 24)

My books arrived yesterday! I came home from a midday viewing of “Star Wars: Attack of the Clones” to find a “sorry we missed you” FedEx delivery tag on the front door of my apartment. I hadn’t been expecting anything, especially the books, which weren’t due to arrive until the first week of June.

The books arrived yesterday, hot off the presses from Donnelly and Sons, delivered to my home—almost—by Federal Express.

I came home from a midday viewing of “Star Wars: Attack of the Clones” (better than expected; fun and exciting; Anakin and Amidala were terrible, but I still had fun) to find a “sorry we missed you” FedEx delivery tag on the front door of my apartment. I hadn’t been expecting anything, especially the books, which weren’t due to arrive until the first week of June.

In my apartment I logged onto fedex.com and tracked the package. The contents were listed as “books (5),” and my eyes grew wide.

My books!

The excitement was almost too much to bear. “My books!” I kept yelling as I bounced around the apartment. “My books!”

I called FedEx. Their Manhattan processing center—way over on 42nd and 11th, which is inconvenient but not nearly as bad as UPS, which is up in the Bronx—was open until 9. Well! Over we go.

Two buses and one subway ride later, I found myself sitting in the FedEx waiting area, tearing open my cardboard box as I waited for the bus to take me back east. Beneath some bubble wrap lay five clean copies of “The Site Speaks for Itself,” as promised, with my name on the cover and my photo inside (twice, no less). Everything looked as promised, handsome and clean.

I flipped through the rest of the book, taking in everyone’s images and pull-quotes, reading Matt‘s bio and Molly‘s introduction on the subway ride to my girlfriend’s apartment. The moment had climaxed rather quickly; I had, after all, seen my chapter and the book cover dozens of times, and I knew what to expect. But the thrill of holding the book, of officially being a published author, still tingles through me a day later.

Amy arrived home from the airport half an hour after I got to her place. She grinned as she pointed at my name on the cover, grinned some more when she found her name in my acknowledgements.

The real fun of publishing is in sharing and showing the finished work. I can’t wait to give my parents and my brother their copies.

I’m a busy man the next few weeks, but I loved contributing to this project, and I can’t wait to write again. Bruce Lawson, expect a follow-up call in July. I’ve got another book to pitch.

Upgraded my cell phone plan today. I’m not sure how AT&T Wireless is making money off me anymore. But I remain a satisfied customer.

After four years as a satisfied AT&T Wireless customer, I have learned to keep an eye on new calling plans to ensure I get the most value for my money.

For a while, AT&T Wireless wanted to upgrade me to a lesser plan than my outdated one; they wanted to yank my unlimited evenings and weekends (this in the days of 500-minute off-peak plans) or charge me more for additional services I didn’t need. Then they started increasing their minutes and decreasing the cost. I had:

1. 60 peak minutes and unlimited off-peak for $29.99 a month

2. 200 peak and unlimited off-peak for the same price, because my unlimited off-peak minutes were grandfathered into the original plan (which drove the customer service reps crazy)

3. 250 peak, 1000 off-peak with SMS and an extended roaming area for $39.99/mo (I gave in)

4. 250 peak, 1000 off-peak reduced to $34.99/mo with free national long distance, awarded to me after the customer service rep said, “I can’t give you that plan, but if you lead me to believe you may cancel your account because of this, I’m allowed to see what I can do for you. Is that what you’d like me to believe?”

Today’s New York Times carried an ad for a new mlife “National Network monthly calling plan.” The same $34.99 upgrades me to 300 peak minutes and unlimited night and weekend minutes again. Good deal, eh?

“Unlimited-night-and-weekend minutes are only available for new customers signing up for two-year agreements,” the customer service representative informed me. “But what we can do is give you 3,000 ‘anytime minutes’ instead.”

In my four years as a satisfied AT&T Wireless customer, I have yet to use more than 1100 minutes in a month. Sold.

Frankly, I’m not even sure how AT&T Wireless is making money off me anymore. But I remain a satisfied customer.

I have an incredible hankering to write something and I was really tired of that celebrity spotting piece, so I have compelled myself to jot a new piece in this space.

Alas, nothing has hit. So you’re stuck reading this (and the weblog! the weblog!).

If you’re curious, I am on the cusp of a very busy spring: Fixing up this Web site (very soon), contributing new and exciting pieces to other sites, taking a class, contemplating new print authoring ideas. I have pledged to myself to keep this site running smoothly through the schedule crunch.

So yeah, this is a poor excuse for an essay. At least I’ve relegated skinny-ass Renee Zellweger to the archives.

Sorry!

Men’s fashion basics, from the excellent The Morning News:

Suits

Dress shirts

Pants

Everything else

And via the Morning News, for future reference: classic tie knots.

At Fred’s at Barney’s, a restaurant in a department store at 61st and Madison in New York City, on Saturday afternoon, over lunch, gawking along with the rest of the tables in the northern half of the restaurant:

At Fred’s at Barney’s, a restaurant in a department store at 61st and Madison in New York City, on Saturday afternoon, over lunch, gawking along with the rest of the tables in the northern half of the restaurant: Renee Zellweger, seated with friends at a table for eight, looking cute and scarily thin; soon joined by Matthew Perry and Matt LeBlanc, tan and goateed, respectively, and both handsome and friendly; and, shortly following LeBlanc’s departure, Courteney Cox Arquette, followed by Jennifer Aniston, which finally made me crane my neck with the rest of the crowd, because they are indeed as beautiful in person as most Americans imagine they would be, Jennifer in particular, as befits her status as one of the country’s cherished faces, even when she’s a little puffy-eyed and casual, like she was at that moment.

We left without seeing whether Brad Pitt showed up.