T Diddy :: Your Friendly Black Dentist

Welcome to the adventures of T Taynes.

Welcome Family and Friends. This is where you will find my chronicles for the next 7-8 months. I hope you will enjoy my adventures. For those that know me well, I will have some crazy stories to share because I seem to always crash my motorbike or I get into barfights on remote islands in South East Asia. If today is any indicator, I woke up at 7:30 to attend a party for St. Patty's Day and my boy Neal, the sucka he is, is trying to convince me to go to Barbados before my trip. Ahhhhh....life with no work is grand.

I have finaly recovered from the party Michael and I hosted at Jake's Dillema (a.k.a. Da Spot) on Friday night. We had about 90 total people come through to celebrate: 1) me leaving the country for 7 months 2) Michael leaving the Big City for law school, and 3) the last week Michael and I will be roomates. This was definitely one of the best nights I have ever had in NYC. All of my good friends showed up. Neal from Cali flew out, old friends since I knew from high school showed up, and my friends that I met in NYC showed up. It was one of those parties where the crowd made the night.

After leaving the bar at 3:30 in the morning, we rolled downtown to get some grub at the Empire Diner. While I am taking down my Turkey Burger when The Real Deal walks in. That is right Evander Holyfield. The man who is my favorite boxer of all time, the 3 time Heavyweight Champ, and my idol when I boxed in College. I normaly do not get awed by celeberties, but this was an exception. After completing my meal and observing all the hoochies approach the pious champion, I simply walked up to The Real Deal and said, "Excuse Real Deal. I normally don't do this, but I want you to whoop Roy Jones' ass when and if you fight him. I used to box and you were my idol. Keep doing your thing because you are the man." It was that simple. March 21st was my night!

Today is the day that I have been waiting for. My emotions are mixed. I am extremely excited, but at the same time a little hesitant to leave NYC. I am not sad or hesitant because I am scared getting cold feet. I believe that I am finally beginning to understand the decision that I made and how much it is going to change the way I walk and talk. At first, I was looking at this as a 7 month vacation. A vacation this is not. A vacation is something you do for 1 to 4 weeks. I am literally moving to another country for 7 months. I do not know the feeling that is combating my excitment. All I know is that there are some great things in NYC that I will miss. NYC has been good to me this past year with all that it offers. The one thing that I do know is that when I hop on this plane at 6 PM EST today, my life will change. I do not know how it will change, but it will be for the better. As Red says in Shawshank Redemption, "Get busy dying, or get busy living!" My friends, I choose living.

The aventure started Saturday afternoon at 3pm NYC time after I said bye to two my dearest friends. The drive to JFK was long because for the first time the impact of my decision set in. I will not see NYC for 7 months and I will be living in a country that I know little about. As Michael T stated, "Nostalgia set in!" I bored the plane after seeing Kentucky, my pick to win the NCAA, play so crapy they were down by 21 at half. I then boarded the plan and promptly spilled me vase de vino all over a lady. Needless to say, between my spillage and kentucky my trip got of to a rough start. The 7 hour flight was painless. As soon as I step off the plane, the traveling passion that I have took over earlier blunders did not matter. I hoped on the Madrid metro and then caught a bus to Salamanca. The door to door trip was a total of 16 hours. Yes, I am tired, but the juices are flowing. The family I am staying with is amazing, Salamanca is small, beautiful and cheap, and I am already flowing the Spanish. Las mujeres de Salamanca, watch out! Este hombre estarè hablando espanol pronto.