Stupid Utah

So today I am working on Sundance stuff in Utah. We are 'going green' next year with Absolut and are using Sundance as a platform to launch our Green Movement. (If you tell anyone, I'll be forced to....kill you) So anywho, we're making the Lounge as Green as possible from the LED lighting to the eco friendly paint and donating the furniture to Habitat, etc. Soooo it's totally up my ally making sure everything is either recycled or eco-friendly. So I'm really enjoying the assignment. So I was on this conference call and I kept forgetting we are dealing with Utah. First of all due to Utah law unless its a restricted private party you can't give away free drinks, and the most you can 'sell for a buck' is 3- So I will never be living in Utah (only 3 drinks?) But they said they dont have a recycling center in Park City. I interjected and said 'actually you have a recycling center 1.3 miles from the Lounge. I felt cool, I was on top of it, knew my shit. Then the guy from Utah burst my bubble. They dont actually recycle those materials. It goes into the land fill, Utah doesn't have a recycling power plant, they collect the materials for statistical purposes, in order to see if they need one/how big of one! What? You're saying you dont recycle your recycled goods? Pissed consumer (enjoy the pun). Soo, these are two reasons why I dont like Utah.

On another note I bought some zicam (which i totally recommend cause it kicked my cold, so in order to celebrate the day of- I went out for a 'few drinks', which if you know me you understand what that translates into.....several drinks.) and it tells me I can drink anything for 15 minutes after I take the pill. Fine, but I dont like restrictions. Not saying I drink allllll the time, but I do enjoy to hydrate at my desk. But just the fact that I have to watch the clock before I can have my next drink annoys me. I dont like restrictions.....or authority(but thats another post in itself). So zicam works you just have to follow the rules. Ok back to work. love you long time.

I finally did it...

I know the title is so nerve racking. Did Matthew finally go mad? No, he went to starbucks and for the first time ever gave them $3.10 of his own money. (Ok I'm done with 3rd person.) I went to school in Lawrence. The land of great, amazing, LOCAL coffee shops. I never went into starbucks or Borders. I had no reason to, my local coffee shop had a much more interesting surrounding plus better music-not to mention cheaper. So I was brainwashed almost to never go to a chain. Lawrence is great for that, you can totally get by all 5 years without going into a chain. Now, it's holiday season and I've got a busy schedule starting in a few days and I can feel a semi-cold coming on. I refuse to be sick for xmas so I went to Duane Reade to get some zicam and some soup. Now, I've tried to find a local coffee shop but that is impossible in midtown nyc. I needed a large white tea and I didn't want to walk forever to get it. So, I sucked it up-entered into this clean environment with certain sections of the room playing into my ethos and saying indirectly 'we're not that bad, look at this little boy in some village, we're 'helping' him'- which commercializes it-yet brings awareness so Im constantly stuck in this catch 22 about all this-but thats another issue for another day. So all in all it wasn't that bad. I didn't get stoned for going and I can feel the white tea attacking my immune system! Even if I did do something bad for the environment/world today (which I'm sure I can think of many more that are more negative worldwide then getting a tea at starbucks) Last night I carried by trash bag full of recycleable materials all the way to my home instead of throwing it away (like i wanted to several times because it was frigid out). I dont need a metal, I just would like to address that recycling should be convenient, but if it's not that's no excuse!

Also I decided to be a nice person on the elevator ride back up to my office and hold the door for this guy. What was my reward? The elevator decided to eat me-literally. It grew fangs and got a good chunk out of me. It was apparently done waiting for this guy to unload his 6 boxes of light fixtures and decided to close and it wasn't stopping by me merely standing in front of it, I literally had to push it back! Ok off to fight the good fight. To infinity and beyond....

I liked it so much, I'm publishing it twice!

So I was a guest speaker on Erin's Blog and I liked the content so much I decided to be lazy and just post it on mine as well (new readers from Erin's blog: welcome- all 1 of you.) It went something like this:

Hello all! This is Matt Conley, also known as playdoh boy. I'm taking a moment out of my 'busy' schedule to contribute to this blog. First of all I'm also confused and put a lot of thought into what it was I was going to contribute on this blog. Should I be witty and pointless (very similar to erin's posts?) or should I dig into the depth of my soul and bring out my true identity and address existential questions? I chose to go with the first one. If I've ever left a message on your voice mail you completely understand that I can ramble like no one's business. I particularly do it to Erin because she expressed her distaste for it. So I'm going to attempt to have some sort of structure here.

I woke up early this morning and got into the office to help my boss with something, come to find out he called in sick. Which made me happy. Not only did I wake up early (NOT a morning person) but I fought the bitter bitter winter that is New York right now. I had quite the weekend (it was my roommates Bday) and I decided for all the brain cells that I killed this weekend, I need to rejuvenate. So, I brought my book instead of my ipod for the trip on the subway to work. However I got outside and was immediately reminded as to why I HATE WINTER! I walked so fast and by the time I got to the subway when I was suppose to start reading my book, I couldn't I was too cold to move. Instead I had to get annoyed with all the 72nd stop people being too rich and too annoyed to have to ride the subway thus making everyone around them miserable. So to them I say: Yes, you have more money than me, you can live on the upper west side, but you're taking the subway just as I am-Do not roll your eyes at me because the subway is packed. If you're that annoyed get a driving service. Ok I dont want to spend all my time talking about people you dont know. So I shall get my point (yes erin, I have one) I was thinking, it would be a lot easier in life if I just knew when I was going to die. I mean I could plan accordingly. Like a budget, you have X amount of dollars (or days in this case) and Y is what you plan to purchase (or experiences you want to be involved in) and thus you get a formula. So if I were to die next year, I'd obviously be sailing around the world, sky diving, getting almost killed by a bus driving in Nepal, etc. But I'm not, because the whole saying of 'live each day as your last' is really quite impractical. I can't make such harsh decisions everyday. I mean my screen name (ever since I was 15) has been Live4now, but that's when I was young and stupid and was in love with the dead poets society. (O Captain my Captain!). I have several things on my 'list of things I want to do before I die'. I plan to accomplish them all, but again, would like to know my time line. I honestly wouldn't mind all that much if they said a year or 2 (I dont want to live to be old, I want to go out with a bang somewhere around 50ish?) But I've gotten together a few photos of things I'd like to see before I die:

I know what you're thinking (wow this guy is really cool. I can assure you: I'm not, but just in case-cue self promotion-you can get more of me at: matthewaaron.blogspot.com)

So instead of seeking these places out before I die, I get ready, face the bitterness of winter, have a lunch, work a little, then see where the evening takes me. I mean everyday I enjoy, I dont have a meeting at the end of the day and measure my levels of happines vs. annoyances of the day and put it in an excel sheet and analyze month-month (hm.. that sounds excessive but practical, I'll look into it) But instead my daily sights are like this:

I can't decide whose my favorite expression is. I really like the guy on the far right, but I can feel the 3rd woman from the left's pain (ps. I googled imaged this photo by searching: new yorker annoyed subway)

So all in all I find joy in my day to day life, but wouldn't say I live it to the fullest, because how practical is that really? Exactly. On another note I was going to use the 'guest blog' experience to talk about how much I love Erin and respect her, because my usual vocab to her is 'you smell, you're not a lesbian, or ugh I hate you.' But I do love her and she's stuck by me for many a good days and many bad. (Even when she was the first one I told I was gay, then didn't talk to her for about a year she still wants to hang out with me. I know sucka!) But I love her. She's even good in bed. (I know what you're thinking, wait-I thought he was, and Erin likes to sleep naked.) Exactly! I will sleep with her only if she's fully clothed, and I get to drool on her sheets. But I dont snore and she enjoys that. I shall end with the great words of Cher from Clueless 'I'm outtie' (I mean I'm gay I'll get my card taken away if I dont say something over-the-top gay)

Love you Erin and you better come back (with my camera)