Life & Times of a Female Software Engineer
Posts tagged new york city
I Donated Blood and All I Got Was This Crappy Hospital Bill
Aug 31st
The New York City Blood Center keeps calling me every morning. I’m at work so all I see is that I have a missed call on my home phone, they don’t even leave a message.
I’ve only donated blood once so far in my life. The other time I tried to, I was deferred since I’d been to a tropical country and I could have contracted malaria. Now that I’ve donated blood and found to have the universal donor type (O-Negative,) they want more of me!
I’m glad to help, really, but let me explain about what happened the first (and last) time I donated blood.
We’re Engaged!
Jul 7th
Adam & Rachel at our Engagement Dinner
This is old news to some people, but on May 21, 2010 Adam asked me to marry him!
He surprised me with a day out at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens for a photo walk (on one of the hottest days of the year that far) but ended up forgetting his camera’s battery. We made due with my puny point-and-click and enjoyed each others company.
After an afternoon of walking and enjoying the flowers, he brought me to the cherry blossom trees and we sat down. If you know Adam, you know he’s a bit of a procrastinator (like me!) We watched a group of people set up for what looked like a wedding and I could tell he was attempting to try and tell me something.
Unfortunately for him, his hesitation was too long and an security guard approached us and asked us to leave the area because the garden was closing (presumably for the event under the cherry blossoms!)
In the scurry of things, he first attempted to sit me down on one of the benches near the trees and as he began to talk a large Hesidic family was making its way across the grass towards us, yelling at their unruly children in the process. Adam rolled his eyes and tried for a third time to find a quiet and appropriate sitting place.
Finally, we walked around for a moment and sat me down on a bench as he stood and reached into his camera bag to pull out a ring box and presented me with my ring. Of course I said yes, we hugged and everything was happy. We then rushed off to the dinner he had scheduled that we were no doubt now late for.
He then surprised me once again when we showed up at the restaurant in New York City, we met up with his father, mother and sister and then shortly the rest of my family all the way from Pittsburgh and my sister from Philadelphia! “Mazel Tovs!” all around. We enjoyed a quiet but talkative evening celebrating our engagement and talked about tentative plans for a wedding next year.
Right now we are in the thick of planning a destination wedding for next summer in Aruba and hope to make a trip with our parents in the next month to scout some places out! We will also be having a reception in Pittsburgh and most likely its counterpart in New York City for our friends and family who won’t be able to join us for our tropical ceremony.
NYC’s Laws Against Large Dog Breeds
Sep 23rd
I was stunned this morning when I read this news on the New York Times website: Large Dogs in Public Housing Are Now Endangered Species. The law restricts the breeds in which a resident of public housing may keep and forces residents to forfeit their dogs or be evicted. Some breeds affected are pure-bred or mixed bred pit bulls, Rottweilers and Doberman pinschers and any dog with an expected adult weight over 25lbs. Residents with an outlawed dog had until May 1, 2009 to register their dog. The man identified in the article attempted to register his dog but was rejected because he exceeded the previous weight limit of 40lbs (which his dog was.) many other residents were also unable to register before May 1, 2009 and are left with the difficult decision of whether to forfeit their dog, find another residency or try to hide under the radar.
When the country as a whole already has severe problems with abandoned and forfeited dogs and cats, I am literally dumb founded how a progressive city like New York would put in such a ludicrous law that will make that problem worse and overwhelm the already struggling shelters and rescuers that work day and night to find and save abused and neglected animals.
The article cites that 113 dogs have been given up because of the ban. Of the 113, 49 dogs were euthanized either because of their illness, temperament or overcrowding of the shelter.
Those were 49 dogs that because of this ban were taken from loving homes and euthanized. Completely. Unnecessary. I find this to be completely unacceptable and disgusting. Why couldn’t those pets be grandfathered in? When Adam and I were looking at apartments and condos a few weekends ago in New York City a few places no longer allowed pets but we still saw a few running around who had been “grandfathered” in.
It’s more distressing to me because Pembroke Welsh Corgis, like my Isabella, are on average about 30lbs at their adult weight and she is 32lbs as of now. She is the sweetest angel and she would never bite anyone! I don’t know what I would do if I were faced with the horrible decision of either giving up my best friend or losing my home. Luckily, she came from a breeder and she can always go back there, but most dog owners don’t have that luxury.
It’s also distressing that the stereotype of pit bulls and other “bad” dogs are being singled out. Sure, the incidents of a pit bull attack are more common than other dog attacks but it’s the owners that choose whether to raise their dog as vicious or with bad behaviors, not the breed themselves. I’ve seen plenty of aggressive poodles over the years, but they aren’t singled out! There is a pit bull that lives in my complex and he is the sweetest little pup!
I’m hoping that with the complaints from the ASPCA and other human societies will help New York City either repeal and look at dogs on a case by case basis rather than a blanket law. However, I feel that most of the damage has already been done and those 49 dogs can’t be brought back. 
Little Boots American Tour
Sep 17th
I’ve been listening to Little Boots since I got a free iTunes sampler earlier this year which included her track “Stuck on Repeat.” Samplers are usually a hit or miss for me, and I was immediately hooked on her sound and personality. Unfortunately, she has only really released tracks in the UK and there are only a handful of legit releases someone from the States can get their hands on. I’ve gobbled up most of her EPs and Remix tracks via iTunes and she even offered a mash-up track off of her website that is composed some released and non-released music.
Boy was I excited when I found out via her mailing-list that not only was she going to do a tour, albeit short, in the United States, but that she was coming to NYC! To make it even better, she was going to be in town a mere days before my birthday! (HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!) I scarfed up two tickets for me and Adam to see her and it only costed about $20 for each ticket. That was a steal for me!
Last night was the night and I was wowed! Not only from Little Boot’s performance and energy but by the two opening bands that night: Plastiscines and Yes Giantess. I should have realized I would have enjoyed Yes Giantess by the remix they did of Little Boots’ “Earthquake” that she released a couple weeks ago.
The Plastiscines were an all-female group with a hard edge. From what I could tell they were French due to their accents, after doing some research I found out I was right. I like being able to hear powerful women who don’t come off as whiney or bitches and they didn’t disappoint. I’m sorry to admit this, but I was really impressed with their hair and clothing too! To be able to rock and look good while doing it? Fab!
Yes Giantess was also a pleasant surprise. As we waited for them to make up the stage I watched the crew put together the different synthesizers and keyboards that the team were going to play and then there was a lone Mac laptop with red electrical tape spelling out “YES” sitting on there as well. These guys were outright nerds and seemed to have a jolly time up there banging away on the keys.
Then came the headliner: Little Boots. I had read Perez Hilton earlier in the day and knew she was to do a surprise set on whatever local event he was having that night in NYC, but I did notice it was here a few times peaking around the corner on the stage while the other acts played so Perez’s thing must not have been long. She had a disco-ball-esque dress on that refracted the stage light that shined in various directions. She has total control of the stage and is very adept at starting audience participation.
If you aren’t familiar with Little Boots’ YouTube videos, she performs with Tenori-On by Yamaha on some of her tracks. The device is so nerdy and dramatically different from all of the classical and modern day instruments out there. As I have interpreted it, you have to be competent in being able to program the machine and then can use your programming and sound bites to play. The most obvious song that you hear it on is “Meddle.”
Another interesting “instrument” she used was some sort of light beam that was sitting on a synthesizer and depending on how she moved her hand the sound would be different. I have no idea what it is called but it was awesome.
She wrapped up the night without playing “Stuck on Repeat” and I was getting a bit nervous! That was my favorite song and I think her most well-known. After exiting the stage everyone stayed on the dance floor and called for her to come back on. Then the first few bars of the song started to play and the crowd went wild! Everyone was satisfied. 
She played all the songs I knew of plus ones I hadn’t heard yet since her debut album “Hands” isn’t available in the States yet so I can only hope that one day we’ll be able to hear it. I’m really excited about what she has to offer to indie electronic music and I hope people in the states will be able to share in it really soon!
