Mormons and Sushi

Today was my first day of being officially unemployed. Had to wake up around 10 to run errands, then wound up heading to the city to hang around with a few folks. Jonas and I wanted to tour a few ships during this fleet week, but the uppity security made lines to get on ships insanely long, so we opted out. We met up with Micky and some of his friends for sushi.

After a good and spicy few rolls, we parted ways. Jonas and I walked by the Mormon temple up on Columbus in the 60's, and it was open to the public for tours. When else in my life will I ever get to see a Mormon temple without accepting Jesus Christ as my lord and savior? The guide said the tour was formal, so Jonas decided to opt out. The irony was not lost on either of us, that a Jewish kid from Wisconsin and an Ismaili Muslim from Long Island were standing in the NYC Mormon Temple.

The tour guide was an Asian dude who spoke very quietly and with a heavy accent. That wiped out my first stereotype about the Mormons (that they were all white). So after having to sit through a 15 minute video about the history of Mormons and Mormon Temples, we had to slip these plastic booties over our shoes (they said it was just to protect the carpeting, but I don't know if that's the whole reason though). We toured the Temple, and I have to say that it is an extremely remarkable structure. The first thing we saw is the baptismal Font, which has three huge statues of Oxen on each side (representing the 12 tribes of Israel). I thought it looked like a jacuzzi without the jets. I admit I did picture myself relaxing in the pool, preferably with a cold drink in my hand (I don't think the Mormons would appreciate that thought though).

But the rooms of the Temple are beautifully decorated and designed. Most have fresh flowers and very pleasant lighting. The Temple has carvings of beehives all over the place, which is supposed to symbolize the work and commitment that goes into their community. But what really struck me is that they didn't have a big central congregation hall. It was more like a series of smaller rooms, all beautifully decorated. The guide kept saying it was designed to feel the presence of God and all that, and I could definitely see what he was talking about. But I didn't feel holy in that place. It reminded me more of a very beautiful wedding chapel (which I guess is intentional, since marriage is a huge part of their faith), very earthly and paradisical, but not spiritual. But I could definitely see how others could feel peaceful and spiritual in that place. Kudos to the Mormons.

In the end, they gave us free cookies! In the end, it was apparent that the Mormons are an extremely wealthy community who like to reinvest their wealth into their Temples and communities. That's absolutely amazing that they do that and keep humble about it. All the Mormons I met there were very enthusiastic about their faith, but extremely nice people. Got a lot of polite smiles and greetings. They're a good group, all the best to them. I'm pretty happy being an Ismaili though, so no plans of conversion... But I do see no problem in learning and appreciating others.

Barbecue Flavored Shoes

So today was my last day of work. Judging as it's the Friday before a long weekend, there were very few people in the office. Not bad though, just relaxed and said my goodbyes to everyone there. So after the sentimental farewells, got to watch a lightning storm from my boss' office, then got on the last Path ride home. That's when the fun began.

While walking towards the front of the train car, I felt something hit my foot. Some freaky freaky eating a box of McNuggets thought it would be a good idea to toss an open container of barbecue sauce at my shoe. I just got those damned things polished too. So the strange thing who threw the sauce at me wasn't making eye contact, I couldn't even tell if it was a guy or a girl. Androgenous and drugged out or something. So instead of making a fuss, I just gave a dirty look then walked away, cleaned off my shoe and stood there quietly. But apparantly some lady next to me didn't want it to end that quickly. She started a fuss, called the conductor, and said, "That one right there threw barbecue sauce at this man's shoe." The conductor then said to me, "Do you want to press charges?" I passed it up. Why bother making a bigger fuss? The same lady making a fuss then continued, saying things to the sauce tosser like "It was a mistake you were born" and "don't be mad at the world, be mad at the ones who created you." Threats flew between them, the conductor came in again, asked her if she wanted to press charges, the whole 9 yards. The freaky freaky sauce tosser wound up sneaking out of the train at Christopher street, never to be heard from again. The conductor even said, "That was assault throwing the sauce at you. We could've taken (him/her/it) away in cuffs if you wanted to press charges." I wouldn't exactly want to remember my last day of work as the day when I got a crazy person incarcerated. (*note: All quoted dialogue above is approximate, and should be read with an inner city accent).

So I came home, went for Jamati services, now I'm being lazy at home. I found out our family friend went into labor last night, gave birth to a beautiful baby girl this morning. Z (cutest little kid ever, see picture below on the May 22 post), now has a baby sister. So a sauce tosser avoided arrest, I got my freedom from the constraintts of employment and a beautiful baby girl was born. So this day was a good one after all.

02 Trips Remaining

"02 trips remaining" is what the Path turnstile read this morning as I entered. Tomorrow is my last commute to Jersey via the Path, and I'm really going to miss those shady, overcrowded and dirty trains.

It's strange, every weekday morning I walk by the construction zone at ground zero heading to the train platforms. At first, it was pretty solemn. It is, afterall, the site of a mass killing. But the more I walked by there, the more I realized the increasing numbers of tourists there to gawk and take pictures. It's just nauseating. There is usually a group of Asian people there taking pictures with a wide grin in front of the site. Asian tourists like to do that, they always take pictures by themselves in front of a monument or something, with their hands at their sides. Kind of like this guy:

The Asian Pose 

It's very peculiar. When it's not a group of Asians, it's usually a group of Southerners or Midwesterners seeing New York for the first time. I have a feeling that their paying tribute is undoubtedly followed by a lot of jingoism and praise for Bush.

So today at work wasn't bad. I spoke to a lot of folks, and I have to say that I really did work with a good group of people. Luckily I'm leaving on good terms. If I'm going to law school, it certainly doesn't hurt to stay in touch with people in the legal profession.

Newark Ceasefire

On the subway this morning, I ran into a girl I knew from NYU. This is the second time I ran into her on the subway. She's a tall (and pretty cute) Bengali girl. We lived in the same dorm freshman year, and for second semester I loaned her my books from Conversations of the West, never to get them back (not like I read them either.) I don't have much use for a Study Bible at this point in my life anyway. I hadn't seen her for many years, then last month sometime I ran into her on the Subway. We were standing next to eachother, then finally I had the courage to ask the obvious 'let's acknowledge that we know eachother' line of "Didn't you go to NYU?" When I ran into her this morning it was more cordial, and we even wound up swapping numbers and email addresses. So I potentially made a new old friend (I acknowledge the irony). She's probably heading to film school next year, and it's always fun to have artsy friends.

At work, some of the attorneys were a little worked up about one particular case. The attorneys brought in some papers to my office and asked me to hand deliver them to another guy at a firm down the street. They were laughing, telling me to watch for the look on the guy's face once he gets the papers. When I delivered them, the guy seemed to angrily tear open the envelope... I could tell he was pissed off when he saw our firm name on it. Funny, how even laywers in suits can get guilty pleasures from taking swings at their gang rivals.

Speaking of, I heard today that the Bloods and Crips and a bunch of other gangs signed a 'ceasefire' agreement in Newark. Nice to know that Newark is making better progress than Najaf. Now I feel safer in the city where I work and never go outside. When working in downtown Newark, after getting off the train, you never have to go outside to get to the Legal Center or the Gateway Centers. In all my time working, the only time I went outside was to get my notary commission at the court house. It's funny how the place turns from posh office highrise into total Ghetto within a 12 inch walk.

Three days of work left.

A Mockery Trial

So today was my last Monday as a Bankruptcy Paralegal. Lucky me, I made a commitment to be a juror at a mock trial somewhere in Jersey after work, completely forgetting that I bought a ticket to see some indie flick with my sister about South Asians in Britain. The mock trial was a really boring personal liability case. The training attorneys had no charisma nor any organizational skills. It was actually quite funny to watch at times.

The problem is that when we were deliberating, I was the one who looked like a cheapskate. I thought a $50,000 settlement would be more than enough. Some jokers wanted to award $500,000. Ugh... just because some old lady falls down a stair (not a flight of stairs, she missed one step and slipped), some idiot wants to give her a half million? It looks like the farce our justice system has become has even penetrated the mock levels.

So other than that, my dad drove me to Brooklyn this morning from home in Long Island. On the way, he had to stop at the hospital and see one patient, so I went with him. While he was inside seeing the patient, I had a conversation with the lady custodian cleaning up the hallway. She was an Indian woman no taller than 4'5. She said she came from Kerala. I could barely understand what she was saying, but all I know is that it was about how she's working so her teenage children can one day go to college, and some story about how her son is good with electronics and fixed up a DVD player that someone had thrown out. She was living the American dream. The interesting part is that after that, she topped off the conversation by telling me that the war in Iraq is completely pointless, and that she really loved Bill Clinton despite his philandering. She topped even that by saying, "Men are better leaders than women." That really came out of nowhere, but it was interesting nonetheless. Two cultures colliding together to form the American dream, plus a really funny, but ironically honest and valid, political opinion. She realized something simple but important... Bush is trying to kill the American dream.

Cutest little kid ever

Sophia and Z. Z's the cutest little girl ever.  

The above picture is of my sister, Sophia, at home with our family friend's daugher, I'll call her Z. Z's the cutest little kid ever. While I was in Brooklyn Heights earlier today, there were a bunch of people walking around with their little kids. A lot of them were really cute. I want to have a little daughter one day. Last week I was talking about the concept of parents and children with my parents and some other people. Fathers always have a soft spot for their daughters, while mothers have it for the sons.

Ok, I'll stop being such a loser. Enjoy the picture.

A Mellow Saturday

I had to wake up at 9 a.m. on the dot becasue the exterminator was coming. The guy spent all of 2 minutes in my apartment putting some pesticide gel all over the place. He said there used to be some people who lived until recently down in the hall in 9K who had garbage piled waist high. He said it was literally the most disgusting situation he'd ever seen. I guess after they were booted the roaches spread out. Hopefully I'll never see one around here again.

I spent most of the day in Brooklyn Heights with a friend who just finished her first year at Brooklyn Law. She's always depressed about something. But it wasn't bad spending a few hours reading at Starbucks, outside absorbing the nice weather. Is it me or are all law students morbidly distraught?

So I spent a few hours reading Timeout New York, and they had a review about Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban:

"Young Harry's third celluloid adventure is the best of the bunch. New director Alfonso Cuaron brings a more tangible sense of menace, tension and struggle, along with the expected visual wizardry. The cast is a who's who of British stalwarts, and yes, Hermione is growing up nicely."

The last line reminded me of one of my friends, let's call him Sag. He's wanted to hit up Emma Watson since the first Harry Potter flick. He's a sick f**k, but he's a funny sick f**k, so it's ok. But it's strange to see the kids of Harry Potter growing up. Emma Watson doesn't look like a little girl anymore, and many people are starting to make lewd comments. The girl just turned 14 last month, so the guys making lewd comments should realize they're still acting like pedophiles, regardless of how much she's grown.

So tonight I'm hanging around with a bunch of folks. Don't feel like doing anything too much. Maybe we'll just go play pool or something. We havn't done that as a group ever. Hopefully it'll be fun just mellowing out together tonight. I'm getting really bored of going out to bars or whatever. Hanging around together and being lazy is a highly under appreciated activity.

Another Day Closer to Freedom

I went to go see Godzilla with Martin last night. I think it's funny how the Japanese pronounce it 'Go-jilla." But the movie was fun nonetheless. I learned that in the American version, they took most of the old movie and spliced Hollywood shot sequences into it, all the while cutting out the satirical elements. So Hollywood's dumbing down of cultural mediums is nothing new.

Today at work, some friends from the Immigration and Corporate groups took me out to lunch to wish me a farewell. We went over to Fornos, about a 5-10 minute walk from our building in Newark. The restaurant was a lot nicer than I expected. Zainab, the Pakistani girl who works in Corporate, was opinionated as usual. She's a really interesting character. We always have little mock skirmishes about India-Pakistan and whatever else, but in the end, she and I relate to one another better than most others at the office. For some reason, she's always pissed off at someone or something. Luckily I havn't managed to cross her the wrong way. I think it's culture shock. She doesn't fully understand American culture, nor does she feel comfortable here. She's such a smart woman, but gets written off pretty easily because of her accent or whatever... hell, she did go to Law School. I guess that's enough to annoy most anyone. Plus I doubt her husband is happy here. They're also a little worried about raising their 2 year old here in the states, thinking that he'll be treated like a foreigner the rest of his life. I can realte to that, growing up on Long Island, there was no shortage of dickheaded elementary school kids calling me 'Ghandi' or whatever the hell else... ignore the fact that I'm American born. Eric, one of her officemates, made some dumbass comment and crossed a line somewhere. I think it was when he jokingly said, 'Curse Allah' or something like that. I politely and privately told him that he should be careful, especially around Zainab. She finds it offensive and is pretty sensitive to the whole anti-Islamic trend that's becomming more mainstream.

So after taking a 2.5 hour lunch break, I went back to the office and passed the time. Only 5 workdays left. After work I went to Jamatkhana for services. They had some members of the national council in town, and surprisingly, had a really great discussion session after. Talked mainly about portraying the soft and intellectual face of Islam and Ismailism. I'm pretty glad to be Ismaili. We (realtively) have our stuff together here in the states.

The ex called me and left a message again today. She mentioned she's having a birthday party the first week of June, and I really don't feel like going. I know she'll be annoying if I skip it again, like last year. Hopefully I can bring along a friend to keep me company. She's such a weird case. When we were together, she got to know me better than most other people ever have. So it's nice to have a conversation with her every once in a while. But the past 2 years or so have changed me tremendously. I don't think she knows the Zahir of 2004 as well as she did Zahir of 2002. Every time we talk, she either says something really meaningful or something really annoying. I'm sure I'm going to rant more about her the more I write.

Welcome

So after putting it off for god knows how many months, I've finally decided to start a blog. All the cool kids were doing it, so why shouldn't I? I was heading home yesterday with my sister, when she mentioned she was going to start a blog. So why the hell not.

I have exactly 6 workdays left until unemployment. I have mixed feelings about leaving. I can't believe that I've been working there for over a year. By far the longest job I ever held. It certainly didn't suck as much as working in the restaurant biz. If anything, being forced to wear business casual did instill some degree of self worth. I can't complain too much, I did have a relatively good ride this past year. Jack and Andrew (the two partners in the Bankruptcy group) treated me very well. Andrew took me and a few others out for my farewell lunch yesterday (Wednesday). We went for Indian food. For a white guy, Andrew has a good tolerance for spicy food. I also could have done without the other white guys trying to imitate the Indian accent. They never do it right. It's always this cartoony and idiotic sounding voice. At least Apu from the Simpsons is half decent, these other guys are just bad at doing it. People should leave the racial imitations to people of their respective race.

I'm training a guy named Pete to take over for me in the Bankruptcy group. He's a really nice guy, seems to be the type who gets along with everyone. He's probably in his 40's. The guy was a stock trader with Drexel Burnham during the 80's, then with Prudential later. After 9/11, he left finance. Why the hell he decided to become a peon in the law firm is beyond me.

Anyway, I'm tired. Went to go see the originaly version of Godzilla tonight at the Film Forum. Funny, cheesy, charming. Better than the crap Hollywood managed to turn it into. More later.