30 in Santiago

A different vacation from the one I had in my mind, but still profound in representing a turning point in my life. I had thought I was going to be in Santiago, Chile partying up a storm at the crack of dawn on my 30^th birthday. And though I was at a party at the W Santiago Whiskey Blue (W Santiago Review), it wasn't as I had pictured. But that was a good reflecting moment for me as I realized that though it wasn't as I had pictured, it wasn't a memory I would want to forget. Whatever your belief may be, I have yet to meet someone who can see the future correctly, which is probably a very good thing because maybe I would have seen the future picture when I was 29 and said to myself: "this is not what I want for my 30^th". Who am I to know what a 30 year-old person needs in their life, I was only 29! Now being 30, I can appreciate the birthday that was and the picture I have now in my life is much better than the one I had pictured for myself. So in “whoever’s” wisdom it was to not have us see the future, it has been equally divine that we can hold onto our memories (Alzheimer’s and poverty should be a CRIME…but that is for another discussion) for we live moment to moment, picture to picture.

Below you will see a slideshow of photos from my birthday trip to Santiago. I took a number of photos of different things but something I hope to change about myself going forward is to step out from behind the lens.




click to see larger

Tripadvisor Reviews: Astrid Y Gastón, Boragó, Blue Jar, The Coffee Club and Cuerovaca

While in Santiago I went to a football match between Audax Italiano vs. Universidad de Chile. The game was held out at the Estadio Bicentenario Municipal de La Florida. The seats my wife got for us was so nice, leather and padded, which made watching the game that much more comfortable. It’s always interesting when going to events in other countries because as we left the game there were these TV cameras at the entrance taping some guy who appeared to be famous, since everyone around us was trying to get his autograph as well as photos taken with, but we were just trying to leave. Christy ended up being on the TV because it was impossible to get around him without stepping in front of the camera. Nice!

It has come that time again for me to get on my soap box but this is more for me than it really is for anyone else (I understand the confliction as this is a public blog that anyone can read but just go with it). My beautiful wife (inside and out) who I have known since I was 14 years old (married for 21 months) took me to Santiago Chile for my 30^th birthday. Now, who when they were 14 years old thought of what they were going to be doing for their 30^th…not me! But, I have to say just as everyone before us has said, GOOD! The one thing I must have heard over and over when I was younger was “don’t rush to get old, don’t worry it will come in time, stay young”. Just as in the movie “Wedding Crashers”, the scene where John (Owen Wilson) talks about how life got away from him but he feels as though he is young and can still do crazy things. This is where Claire (Rachel McAdams) turns to him and says “Well... you're not that young”. That is where I think 30 sits. Some may consider it to be a “sweet” spot, but as I have only just turned 30, I am not wise enough to say at this point. But as many, who have before me, have come to share their wisdom I have heard similar tales of one’s 30’s being a great time...getting better. When I was 14 I had only met this girl from queens who I became friends with. Now at 30 she is my best friend who I want to share the world, my world, which is really the only world we really know, with. BETTER! I do not know what the future may bring but having a partner adds character and color to the soul.

You can have your own beliefs on whether we are “alone” in our existence, seeing as we come into this world alone but I think it’s the life we choose to lead, interactions we care to be a part of, memories we love to share in, that helps us leave this world together, just at different times. Who knows what will happen today or tomorrow, but the marker in time we call our birthday is a memory/moment/picture we as individuals can use to better understand who we are from yesterday…understand ourselves by connecting with others, growing our perspective to change the world, our world, my world, together.

Dent the Universe - Steve Jobs

One's travel

 “Life is a journey, not a destination” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson


A concept that is lost at times as we are too busy making plans for our life. The choices we make in this one life we live (even if you believe we are reborn, this life, the one you are living right now, is the only one you will have as “you”) can mean so much more than the actual choice itself. My choice to travel hasn’t been about going to Korea or Brazil (destinations) but the interactions (journeys) I have with the people who are there. This is probably why I have not really been that interested in going to Antarctica or why when I go somewhere, walking through a museum doesn’t make me feel as though I have journeyed (though the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is one NOT TO MISS).

This may be why I have such an affinity for New York City, one of the most diverse metropolitan cities I continue to journey through...but such kinship was not embraced by my younger self (I grew up in South Side Jamaica Queens). I knew I wanted to get out of New York City at my first chance (which for me was college), but that was just me choosing a destination. It took that journey away, for me to realize what New York City is to me…a lesson well learned.

As I look back on my travels on this planet, I have grown an appreciation for my blessings (all of them). I am a firm believer in individual perspective and of course you are entitled to yours; how your interpretation of destinations and journeys reveal themselves to you is but your own!

Below is a Tripadvisor map that shows where I have been (yellow dots) and where I would like to visit (green dots). If the list gets bigger or stays exactly where it is, I plan to embrace my journey through the destinations of Random Lives!  

• View my profile
• Create your own travel map or travel blog
• Top vacation rentals at TripAdvisor

Transition

As this blog talks to random parts of my life that I feel are pertinent to share, I am talking this moment in April to reflect upon change. Recently, I left my employment for a new job. In this job market (Q1 2010), I have noticed that it has been quite hot (for now). 5 of my colleagues left within a 4 week span, now some might speculate on the reason those people left, but I choose to take it for what it is. I do believe of everyone that did leave, the least amount of years spent with the company was 2 years with one person being with the company over 10. Now, I only say this to place perspective on the situation. I can only speak for myself and I truly enjoyed my time with my previous company. I can honestly say, in my short life, it was my best job ever. Yes it had its challenges, but in totality it was a place I will never forget. But as I left one job to join this great job, I felt it time to leave this place to experience something new. I have no plans on jumping from job to job, that is not fun at all, but I do feel I am at a time (recently married, no kids) in my life where I can afford to take moderate risk to see how I can enhance my skillsets to make me a complete contributor to an organization. I do know that with change comes a level of unknown that can be daunting, but life is short and we must do what we can to live each day to the fullest whether we are on top of the world or walking the streets below it.

Now I do write these blogs to all out there that are willing to listen to this man’s thoughts. But this blog post is dedicated to a friend of mine, from my previous employment, who always asked me: “Charles when is the next post coming out? Your public wants to know more!” And out of the respect I have for him, I will end this post in a similar manner of a television show we both love (Criminal Minds):

“The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed.” – Lloyd Jones

Lua de Mel

So for those who have been following the “saga”, after the wedding comes the Honeymoon (lua de mel is honeymoon in Portuguese). For those who are getting married, I would say having a honeymoon is an important step in your journey together. It is during this time you both get a chance to not only relax, from all the wedding planning, but really enjoy being Mr. & Mrs. away from everyone else. You meet people who will only know you as Mr. & Mrs. since they are meeting you for the 1st time, while friends and family knew you together or separately, which I think is pretty cool.

So onto the goodies…the trip started off quite interestingly. It was the day that we had a snow storm here in New York City (we left 2/25/10) but our flight left right before the full blast hit New York (there was enough snow to be worried, but we made it out). My computer was acting up in the airport, which made me a little cranky since I need my computer! And when we were on the flight, there was a drunken lady that had to be escorted off the plane, which delayed our flight from NYC to Atlanta (our connecting city to Buenos Aires --Video below will show). After all this, we were pretty much sailing right in South America.



When we landed the weather in BA (Buenos Aires) was beautiful, definitely a welcomed change from snowy New York City. We stayed at the Glu Hotel, which is a beautiful boutique hotel located in Palermo – Soho (upscale fashion area). The hotel has its quirks here and there, but overall I would recommend staying there if you are in BA. While in BA we participated in Graffiti Mundo (purchased our 1st and certainly not our last piece of artwork as Mr. & Mrs. Nixon), a polo lesson and enjoyed 1st class dinning (Social Pariso & Casa Cruz) at a rate of 4 to 1. BA is a place I will not return to, unless I am already in that region, even though the exchange rate is fabulous. One issue I had with Buenos Aires is that a lot of the addresses to things are not very clearly marked, so when using googlemaps for directions I had to get creative, so if anyone wants the location to any of these things just leave a comment.


click to see larger

Next stop, Sao Paulo Brazil. For those who know me, I travel to Brazil quite frequently. So far, this was probably not my best trip there (the weather did not cooperate at all) but I enjoyed every moment with my wife. When we travel to Sao Paulo the only hotel we stay at is the Unique, which is very “unique”. It is one of the top hotels in Sao Paulo and it shows! The hotel service was fabulous and they were helpful every step of the way. We were there for a week, so we had a chance to speak with a lot of the staff and even the manager (no problems with English, though my Portuguese has improved considerably). During our stay we went to great restaurants (Dalva e Dito & DOM), partied at Mokai (VIP set up by the hotel), watched AVATAR in IMAX (Bourbon Shopping; movie theatre was packed), lunch @ Google Brazil (a friend of mine just moved there for work) and our usual activities (dinner with a friend’s family, delicious room service dinner, etc.). The week before we arrived was extremely sunny, the week after we left was very sunny, but the week we were there was extremely cloudy with a lot of drizzling. ALSO, the traffic in Sao Paulo is some of the worst in the world. To give a little perspective on this, I will provide you with 2 examples. The first example comes when we were in a cab traveling from the airport to the hotel at 9:30 at night. The cab driver decided to ride the shoulder of the highway for 30 minutes because the traffic was so bad. Next example comes from us trying to get to a night club at 1:30 in the morning and traffic was so bad we got out of the cab and walked the 8 blocks remaining in the cab ride because traffic was almost at a standstill.


click to see larger

All in all the honeymoon was one my wife and I enjoyed and will certainly remember for the rest of our lives. We are most certainly looking forward to our 2nd honeymoon… ;P

Change Thy Name

I just got married about 3 weeks ago now and one of the most dreaded parts of getting married is the combining of both people’s lives. Now I am not speaking of the emotional and mental part of the union, but where the real meat occurs…finances and government! And for those ladies that have to change their name, I hope you are organized.

If you are like me, I am a fan of the wife taking the husbands name. And in doing this, there are quite a few steps that are necessary in becoming one surname. One of the things I found for my wife (1st online reference to her – feels good) is this service called missnowmrs.com. Its $30 for the deluxe, but the basic should be enough to get most through what they need. In all honestly it can be done on your own, the website just helps you with the questions and pre-fill the forms for you to send out. My suggestion for all the women out there changing their name is to do it in the following order.

1. Department of Motor Vehicle (In NYC $15, $80.50 for renewal)
2. Social Security (Free – NYC)
3. Passport ($75)

Each of these can be done through a simple search of the item needing to be changed and the text “change name”. Now what my wife and I did was mail our license in before we went on our honeymoon, so that when we came back it would be waiting for us, as it did. We then needed to take that marriage license to the DMV as proof of the change, which then gave her a temporary drivers license with her new name on it. We then took the marriage license, social security card and passport (old name) with us to the social security office (they no longer accept drivers license as a form of ID). And finally we went to the post office and mailed out the forms, pictures, money order and original marriage license. What’s important to note in this process is that the passport office wants a certified copy of the marriage license, which would take time to obtain since we just received the license itself, so we just sent the license since the other government documents could be done 1st and we don’t have plans for international travel for some time.

I was with my wife through this entire process. I would say as long as you are organized and take 1 day off to get this done, it isn’t as horrible as one might think. All the other stuff, bank accounts, professional licenses (she is an attorney), cell phones, etc. can be just notified via phone…usually. We also took a scanned copy of the license in PDF format so that it could be emailed to whoever would need a copy.

If you do your homework, prepare and get the paperwork in order you too can truly become ONE!