Today has been the WEIRDEST day.

The plan for today was to take my mid-term, and go to work… I guess both of those things did happen, but in the midst of a very strange turn of events.

The day started with me waiting for the bus. My class is 20-25 blocks from my dorm, so I usually take the NYU bus in the morning and walk home in the afternoon. The bus was really late though, which normally wouldn’t be a problem, but I had a mid-term today, and I didn’t want to be late, so I decided to grab a cab.

Luckily, I got one quick, but the driver wasn’t some Indian dude named Hassan (lol, stereotypes), but rather an old Jewish lady. She was hilarious and was so interested in my life, but she drove like an old lady, and I was in a rush. She saw an ad for a MTV’s The Buried Life on the side of a bus and told me how strange the question “What do you want to do before you do?” is, hah.

So we get down to 9th Street on 2nd Ave, when she tries to cross over to 3rd Ave… BUT NO. There is a random parade/mob/riot/protest about freedom in Tibet or something?! It was ridiculous. As punny cab lady put it: “Don’t they know you have an exam to take!? If only it was raining so it would rain on their parade.”

After about 5 minutes of sitting in PARK, I gave up, paid the lovely Jewish women who told me to have a nice flight tomorrow, yeah, she knew all about me, and rushed to take my mid-term.

When I finished (failing it), I checked my phone to see that today is jetBlue’s 10th Birthday and that they will be hiding out in different parts of Manhattan giving out 1,000 free plane tickets. I WANT IN. I only had an hour and fifteen minutes to get lunch and be at work, but when I saw that jetBlue was downtown, I hopped on the subway to try to find them.

The tweet they posted said: “We’re at Broadway & Dey St. Find us and bring a birthday card for JetBlue!”

When I got out of the Subway at the City Hall station, I started walking toward the nearest Duane Reade to buy a birthday card when who walks by me? MAYOR BLOOMBERG! Like, our shoulders were about 2 inches apart at one point. It was so cool. Totally made up for the fact that I did not win a free jetBlue ticket, but the story continues…

So I walk into Duane Reade, and as soon as I do, some guy runs up behind me goes to the cashier and yells, “Do you guys sell birthday cards!?” I looked at him and was just like “jetBlue?” and he was like “Yep.” Once I had picked out a card and was waiting in line, I heard people in front of me on their phones saying “NO, THEY’RE OUT OF TICKETS?!”

I went down to Broadway and Dey anyway, and jetBlue wasn’t there, but there were hundreds of confused people roaming around with a cell phone in one hand and a birthday card in another. My guess is they didn’t see Mayor Bloomberg today though, so, I win ;)

Turns out the next location they went to was University & 12th which is RIGHT by NYU… but I was at work so I couldn’t even try to show up. It’s all good though, I already have a jetBlue ticket to Ft. Lauderdale tomorrow at 7pm. SEE YOU SOON 954!

Today I did something new. For the first time since I’ve lived in New York, I actually left the state of New York (other than to go to Florida, of course). Today I went to… NEW JERSEY.

Now, as a New Yorker, I’m pretty much, as Lily from How I Met Your Mother so beautifully describes, “programmed to despise and loath New Jersey and all that it stands for.” See this clip:

…but if you’ve seen that whole episode, you know that Marshall really comes to love New Jersey. See this clip:

I hate to say it but, I actually had a little bit of a Marshall moment today. I don’t by any means hate New York (I mean, come on) but Newport, New Jersey has stuff that Manhattan doesn’t! Like TARGET. I love Target, but what do we have here? K-Mart. Who shops at K-Mart?

And everything is so much cheaper! I got 10 pairs of socks for $10 and sales tax is only 3.5%!! It’s 6% in the FtL, 7% in Miami, and 8.875% in NYC!

There was also this ridiculous mall called Newport Centre that was big and spacious. Just ask Marshall, big and spacious doesn’t exist in Manhattan.

But hey, just because Jersey City (Newport) is nice doesn’t mean I can’t hate the rest of the state. You won’t find me in Newark anytime soon. NYC ALL THE WAY ;)

Check out some more pics below. Click for full size.

*Video clips property of CBS Corporation.

Notice anything different around here?

(When there’s midterms to study for there’s always time to spruce up deandagati.com)

In addition to the new banner at the top of the page (which is a picture of Washington Square Park I took from the NYU Kimmel Center yesterday), there is now a new dedicated page dedicated to the amazing people that support this website.

Check out: deandagati.com/fans

This is video I took in Washington Square Park today, and if it’s warm enough to roll your PIANO into the park, then Spring must be right around the corner, and seriously, it can’t come soon enough.

Today was in the upper 40’s and sunny, nicest weather we’ve had in a while. The snow from last week is finally almost all melted away, and the forecast for this weekend looks amazing. 50 & sunny both days! We haven’t seen 50 degrees since when? October?

Speaking of warmth, I can’t wait to go home to Florida on the 11th and get some serious heat. High of 81 my first day back. Love it ;)

So I’m walking home from class today, and I’m thinking “Ah, you know what would be delicious right now? A tasty Subway sub.” So I walk into my local Subway at 19th & 3rd and order up my favorite item from the Subway menu: the Italian BMT. I load up my toppings, get the value meal (cookies, not chips, fasho) pay, and head home. When I get upstair,s I select an episode of How I Met Your Mother on my TiVo and get ready to indulge in the delicious sandwich that has befallen me. But as I unwrap it and prepare to take my first bite, I notice this huuuge hair inside of the sub.

WHAT.

THE.

HELL.

Now I have quite a dilemma. Do I just take the hair off and eat it anyway or do I let my germophobe perfectionist self put back on my coat and shoes, and go down to a different Subway to order the same sandwich. I IM David Nathanson, my personal consultant, who tells me, “its just a little hair watch your show eat your sub i’m gonna go get a haircut good day for us both.” He’s right. It’s just a hair. It’s not going to harm me in anyway. It won’t effect the deliciousness of my sub. So I tell him okay, and sign off.

Anyway, when I get down to Subway #2 on 25th & Lex, they don’t even have my favorite herbs & cheeses bread! So I had to get regular white bread, and pay for the same sandwich again. But let me tell you: it was hairless, and it was delicious. The end.

Some of the amazing people that hit up deandagati.com also have sites & blogs of their own that are just as awesome (if not more) than mine. The “Friends’ Blogs & Sites” section on the right hand column (scroll down a little bit) has always been there, but I just want to bring your attention to it since I have some really creative friends that deserve hits. Check it.

PS. Do you have a website/blog/Flickr/YouTube/anything else that you want on the list? Let me know.

This hoodie contest broke the record for the most entires yet for a deandagati.com giveaway! 249 people came to check out the contest and 44 people entered! (It was totally my video that did it, wasn’t it?)

Congrats to my good friend and fellow New York City enthusiast, JULIE WEINTRAUB!!!

She will be getting her free deandagati.com hoodie shipped down to the Coop in a couple of days. (I’ll be shipping myself down to the Coop come March 11, just saying.)

If you didn’t win, but still really want a hoodie you can buy one or any of the variety of deandagati.com t-shirts here.

Thanks again for everyone who entered and supported the contest, hopefully we can have another one soon =)

The deandagati.com t-shirt store has become more than just a place for t-shirts. For 30 bucks, you can get a deandagati.com HOODIE! But why pay $30 when you can get one for free!? As promised, here’s your chance…

HOW TO ENTER: Just post your name as a comment to this post (or click here) and you’re entered to win. That’s it!

On Monday, March 1, 2010 at 10:00PM, the computer will randomly select one person as the winner. So you’ve got a little over 24-hours to enter, and make sure that you only post ONE comment. If you post more than one, you’ll be automatically disqualified.

You don’t pay for the hoodie, you don’t pay for shipping. It’s all 100% free and anyone can enter including winners of past t-shirt contests.

It even comes in your choice of these kind of lame, but kind of cool colors:

If you like these deandagati.com giveaways, become a fan on Facebook.

Good luck!

It’s 10:00PM!! The contest is over. Thanks to everyone who entered, the winner will be announced soon.

Above is Taylor Slingerland’s Color Slideshow Project for Photography at CCHS, and when I saw it, not only was I amazed (clearly I’m a sucker for photography), but I knew immediately that Taylor had to be this month’s awesome person.

(Yeah, I’m turning Awesome People into a monthly thing. Sling gets February.)

When Pichardo, the CTV officers and I were choosing people to enter CTV in 2008, Pichardo raved about this kid Taylor Slingerland in his TV1 class. We watched his music video project and my first response was “I don’t want this annoying sophomore in CTV.”

It took until I graduated, but that “annoying sophomore” eventually became one of my best friends.

His photography and film skills are ridiculous and I want him to come to NYU. While he did actually apply here, he also applied to 983 other schools and claims he probably won’t be coming to New York. I’m keeping my hopes up though because A.Katz and I really want him around.

For more Slingerland Photography, check out his Flickr here.

If you’re also a sucker for photography like me, check out the Color Slideshow Projects of Julie Weintraub (here) and Jon Cohen (here) because they are both awesome, as well.

One last thing is that Taylor hates nicknames, so I say we all post some creative nicknames in the comments and I’ll have a poll for the best one next week. Just for you Sling ;)

This morning, I woke up to a phone call at 7:00am. Normally, I hate when phone calls wake me up since they are usually a recorded message telling me I’ve won a free 3-day, 4-night all-inclusive trip to the Orlando resort area, but this time was different. This time, it was a call from NYU alerting me that all classes today have been cancelled and that the University is closed. SNOW DAY NUMBER 2!

I was supposed to work today, though. I kind of wanted the hours since I only get 4 a week, but whatever.

It’s still snowing outside. We’ve gotten over 20 inches so far, which is ridiculous. All kinds of record breaking.

Here are some pics I took today and yesterday. I didn’t go out in it this time. I’m ready for Spring, yo. Click for full size.