Sachin Agarwal: September 2006

No one would ever think New York can have a small town kind of feel. I don't know any of the people who live in my building, and the second week after I moved in one guy told me I shouldn't even bother trying to meet people.

While my apartment may have no community, the area around me and all the businesses are the best little community I've ever encountered. Never before have I known so many of the people who operate the businesses that I go to. A couple weeks ago I was walking down 4th Avenue and the dry cleaner on 6th st and his wife were walking to the train and they said hi to me. The following day I walked by Jimmy of Jimmy's 43 and he said hi.

And I know almost everyone who works in my gym. They aren't just random employees who come and go every month. They have been there for months and are extremely knowledgeable and willing to help.

Tonight I ordered food delivery from Nolita House a great bar Joe and I went to about 4 months ago, once. Since then I've just been getting delivery. For some reason today the food took almost an hour and a half to come. I called them up to let them know (not really to complain). The person I spoke to told me to speak to the manager. I told him I wasn't complaining, but he said the manager should know.

I remembered the manager's name was Scott. "Scott you probably don't remember me but I was there a few months ago." "Remind me of the details." "I'm an Indian guy and was there with my Korean friend." "Oh you work at Apple right?"

Pretty amazing. He gave me my dinner for free and told me I had to come in to the bar for some free rounds. I remember when Joe and I were in the bar drinking we enjoyed talking to Scott and learning about how he had taken loans from his family to start this bar on his own. Afterwards Joe really wanted to open his own bar.

There's so much competition in New York for food and drink service that business owners go out of their way to make you happy. I'm all about great customer service so I love it!

This year's US Open was the best tennis I've ever seen in my life. It started with watching Agassi play the last matches of his career. What an incredible player! Super Saturday I watched all three major tennis matches at my uncle's house in Long Island, including Sharapova take the singles title (hot!).

On Sunday I watched the finals in Madison Square Park where American Express had setup a jumbo screen for the entire tournament. There were hundreds of people sitting on the grass watching the game. It was very cool.

Of course the highlight was going to the US Open on Thursday. I took the day off and purchased both day and evening passes. In the day I avoided the major games in Arthur Ashe but watched the smaller games on the grounds courts instead, where you can get much closer to the action.

During the day I saw Martina Navitralova play the women's doubles quarter finals at age 49! My favorite match was Todd Martin vs Jimmy Arias in the Men's Champions (old men) game. I was sitting in the first row! They were having a good time on the court, talking shit to each other and having fun with the crowd.

The biggest match I saw was Roger Federer vs James Blake in the men's quarterfinals at night. The whole stadium was cheering for New York local James Blake to beat Federer, but there was no competition at all. Joe and I left after the first set to get a beer and we missed the whole second set, 6-0 Federer!

I was at the Open for 14 hours straight, bouncing around from match to match. Next year I want to go even more, and hopefully take my mom since she loves to watch tennis.

On the way to the US Open on the 7 train, Joe and I both noticed (separately) that we passed a White Castle. On the way back we stopped at the closest station and got a late night snack. It was pretty disgusting :).

A totally epic day. It was definitely one of the highlights of being in New York so far.

I tried to limit how many pictures I uploaded, but it was a great day for photos. The Canon 70-300 IS is an incredible lens! Click here for the pictures

Eric and PJ came to visit New York for a full week, and by the end of it I was amazed by how much energy they had. Eric said they were "powered by fun." Every night we went out and partied, and every morning they were up and ready to go sight seeing (not super early, but not bad).

What a packed week!

Wednesday: late arrival, Angels Share.

Thursday: Poke sushi, bars in Soho including Shebeen, Zum Schneider beer, pizza at Ray's.

Friday: First I met up with my co-worker Cyndee who was also in town. We had a GREAT dinner at Becco, before seeing Rent. After that I met up with Eric, PJ, Del, Steph, and Nick at Crobar, which was later followed by Pianos. At 4:30 we were getting food at L'Express (AWESOME french food open 24/7, lamb burger, yum). At 4:30am they had a line out the door.

Saturday: Spent the whole day at the Met. Great museum! We took a break in the middle and got coffee and chocolate at La maison du chocolat. That night was a big group dinner at Schillers (try a New York Sour, whiskey sour with a layer of red wine on top) and then beer at Vol Du Nuit.

Sunday: Dim Sum in China Town. Watched the Agassi match at the gym. Went to Zen noodles for dinner, and then drinks on the roof of Eric's high school friend Blaine's apartment

Monday: Lunch at davidburke, I walked around the park a bunch, met up with Eric+ at the Guggenheim, went back to the park and took a nap. Then went to Brooklyn for 32 ounce Becks for $3 at Rosemary's and then awesome pizza at Fornino. Ended the night with ice cream from Tasti Delite

Pretty ridiculous! It was great having Eric and PJ visit and spend time with them and show them around New York. Here are the pictures!

I watched the last two episodes and they really were incredible. The last episode was a masterpiece, with good music and a great conclusion. It was easily the saddest TV I've ever seen. I tried to watch the last episode a second time but I couldn't do it.

I can't even describe how awesome the last 15 minutes of the show were; they wrapped everything up better than any TV show I've seen. The last song of the show was Breathe Me by Sia. Really great song. But every time I listen to it I think about the show and it makes me sad again.

Everyone I know who watched Six Feet Under loves it. I was talking to Aki today and he also thinks it might be the best TV show ever. The "problem" is you can't just pop in a DVD and watch an episode for entertainment. You really have to watch it from beginning to end. Maybe I'll do it again in a few years.