Nu. The first and second loads in a bunch of blogging I have neglected are dripping and pinned to the line.
I've stopped taking the subway so much, and it seems to me that I feel better than 90% of the rest of New York right now, sans flu shot. Washing hands that I keep out of my eyes and other points of sinusoidal entry fairly frequently helps too.
In the meantime, I've fallen in love with the buses in Brooklyn. I now have a transfer free commute to work, and I can still walk a decent amount being no more than 10 blocks from work (though my stop runs close).
I've been doing fine getting to work on time, though I was chastised on Halloween for answering the phone while at the cash-wrap. 'Twas an accident, but a careless move, nonetheless. A mistake I shant repeat, since I was up off my swollen knee (which I had sprained the night before) and working on an Purchase Order. When the phone rang towards the end of my shift, I picked it up absentmindedly and was reprimanded rather quickly by my boss. Learning takes reinforcement.
The incident put a little pep in my step, and I've been blowing through receiving cartons and greeting cards. Ah, retail.
MB, or Mahi Mahi, as she'll henceforth be known, and I held a HouseWarmingPotluck this past Sunday, which was well attended by our friends. There were plenty of great dishes, and now our "Bushwhack" fridge is packed with leftovers.
Today was a day off, and I spent it with the family of friends.
One of the best parts of New York City, is that it's fun to do the tourist thing once in a while, and walk from the High Line in Chelsea to Times Square, eat some Halal food, stroll to Grand Central Station, marvel at the structure and big-fuckoff-ness of the new Bank Of America building (a bank holding about 25% of the country's deposits), go up to the Observatory on the Empire State building and still make it back to Brooklyn before rush-hour.
Until next time.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
More (Building) Blocks
Hello family, friends and friendlies, the noon hour is approaching!
So, in an effort to respect attention spans, I have broken this long overdue update into building blocks. The FIRST of which can be read here.
I had taken a Wednesday off from Greenlight to chaperon a field day in Prospect Park, then do some Laundry, Reading and Scribbling on Thursday.
Friday, it was back to work, which meant putting books on the FINALLY FINISHED (and finely finished) shelves! I also got to take a stroll around Fort Greene and Clinton Hill to put up fliers announcing the launch party for the store.
It took about two and a half hours to go up Dekalb and down Myrtle, jaunt down Flatbush and then back to Fulton, putting up the hand-printed posters.
When my coworker and I returned, we witnessed the very first sale! A local businessman came in to buy a book about brewing beer right out of the box!
The very next morning, I was trained on the cash register and Greenlight was go.
We had a whole week of a soft-open where we were cash-only and still made plenty of sales. By the time Saturday's launch took place, it felt natural to be open in Fort Greene, and the whole community had welcomed us with a very nice big hug. We've been officially open about a month now, and it's been very positive.
We have a lot of local authors coming in and telling us about their books, lots of community members stepping in to share their praise and thanks.
If the pictures of the crowd at our launch party are any indication, Greenlight has been very warmly received. I mean, it was buckets of cold rain were falling out of the sky, and we were having to turn people away at the door, because we were so packed. I was on sticky-finger patrol, but if anyone had wanted to rip us off, they would have had a hard time getting out the door.
I have been put in charge of receiving at the store, which means I check in all the shipments, count quantities, verify details and put the stock on-hand. It's a nice increase of responsibilities and it's something I like to do.
I'm still interested in other work.
Grad School, for instance. You may recall that I applied for Grad School
(I would link to that entry, but I don't know the HTML for directing a window to open at a specific place on the page, so the reader might be forced to actually read the entire entry on the screen before finding the exact reference.)
Anyways, I have only one out of the two letters of recommendation, the second of which is apparently hinges on a dialogue of one participant. I was short on time, in any case, and money as well. So I opted to pay rent and buy a new I-pod shuffle since the charger for my old one broke, in place of the application fee.
Currently, there is a change jar labeled "APPLICATION FEE", and the History Masters program at CUNY has rolling admission. So, a February deadline and a chance to be exceptional, I'm going to seek out scholarships now and get a competitive age for a bout with the admission process. Ditto FAFSA, which I can submit in January.
Also, there is a Marine-Theme Highschool on Governor's Island, which is basically MAST on the Hudson. They need a bilingual secretary, but Mom's right, I could easily learn Spanish. Time to purchase a Spanish-English dictionary. I can already comprende plenty. I think the easiest thing right now, is to volunteer, perhaps as a crew coach, and get to know the school that way.
Nu, it's time to move the first load down the line and find room for the second and start washing the third.
So, in an effort to respect attention spans, I have broken this long overdue update into building blocks. The FIRST of which can be read here.
I had taken a Wednesday off from Greenlight to chaperon a field day in Prospect Park, then do some Laundry, Reading and Scribbling on Thursday.
Friday, it was back to work, which meant putting books on the FINALLY FINISHED (and finely finished) shelves! I also got to take a stroll around Fort Greene and Clinton Hill to put up fliers announcing the launch party for the store.
It took about two and a half hours to go up Dekalb and down Myrtle, jaunt down Flatbush and then back to Fulton, putting up the hand-printed posters.
When my coworker and I returned, we witnessed the very first sale! A local businessman came in to buy a book about brewing beer right out of the box!
The very next morning, I was trained on the cash register and Greenlight was go.
We had a whole week of a soft-open where we were cash-only and still made plenty of sales. By the time Saturday's launch took place, it felt natural to be open in Fort Greene, and the whole community had welcomed us with a very nice big hug. We've been officially open about a month now, and it's been very positive.
We have a lot of local authors coming in and telling us about their books, lots of community members stepping in to share their praise and thanks.
If the pictures of the crowd at our launch party are any indication, Greenlight has been very warmly received. I mean, it was buckets of cold rain were falling out of the sky, and we were having to turn people away at the door, because we were so packed. I was on sticky-finger patrol, but if anyone had wanted to rip us off, they would have had a hard time getting out the door.
I have been put in charge of receiving at the store, which means I check in all the shipments, count quantities, verify details and put the stock on-hand. It's a nice increase of responsibilities and it's something I like to do.
I'm still interested in other work.
Grad School, for instance. You may recall that I applied for Grad School
(I would link to that entry, but I don't know the HTML for directing a window to open at a specific place on the page, so the reader might be forced to actually read the entire entry on the screen before finding the exact reference.)
Anyways, I have only one out of the two letters of recommendation, the second of which is apparently hinges on a dialogue of one participant. I was short on time, in any case, and money as well. So I opted to pay rent and buy a new I-pod shuffle since the charger for my old one broke, in place of the application fee.
Currently, there is a change jar labeled "APPLICATION FEE", and the History Masters program at CUNY has rolling admission. So, a February deadline and a chance to be exceptional, I'm going to seek out scholarships now and get a competitive age for a bout with the admission process. Ditto FAFSA, which I can submit in January.
Also, there is a Marine-Theme Highschool on Governor's Island, which is basically MAST on the Hudson. They need a bilingual secretary, but Mom's right, I could easily learn Spanish. Time to purchase a Spanish-English dictionary. I can already comprende plenty. I think the easiest thing right now, is to volunteer, perhaps as a crew coach, and get to know the school that way.
Nu, it's time to move the first load down the line and find room for the second and start washing the third.
Writer's (Building) Blocks
Good morning family, friends and friendlies.
I'll admit, it's been way too long since I've offered an update. Blogs are a bit like laundry.
The longer you go without doing it, the more you're going to have to do when you finally decide to sort every dirty scrap and take it to be washed--probably requiring more than one trip to the machines--assuming you had enough clean underwear to get away with that sort of thing.
I'm wearing clean underwear, and doing laundry, so why don't I begin at the beginning and tell you what's happened since I last washed my unmentionables--er, updated this blog?
Load One:
I'll start with the field day my friend AJ--let's call her Miss Bones, planned back for October 14.
First of all, the honor for being the reason she was able to help organize such a great day for the freshman class at the school where she teaches goes to THE COLLEGE BOARD. The Oak-leafed Testing Bureaucracy had scheduled the Preliminary S.A.T./National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which most high-schools administer to the Sophomore and Junior Classes.
As a C.A.P. advisor last year, my 15 hours a week at MAST allowed me to plan an incredibly boring last minute college fair and financial aid lecture for the Senior class, while the rest of the school got familiar with the ol' College Board. A chilly morning in Prospect Park was way more exciting.
Miss Bones and her co-workers (mostly Humanities teachers at the Brooklyn School) organized a well-structured event, broken down into Alpha platoon and Bravo platoon. In each platoon about five rotating squads of soldiers, supervised at each activity station by at least one teacher and one other warm body.
I was assigned to work with Mr. Knife, the freshman History teacher (His name is from the French for blade, lame)
Our station was equipped with two big buckets of water, two liquid measuring cups that held 4 cups, two tablespoons and two teaspoons. Miss Bones had me carry some hula hoops to the park, for her station which involved the students holding hands and not being able to let go, while they maneuvered the hoop around each person in the chain.
Each squad that appeared at our station was divided into two fire teams whose objective it was to safely transport a tablespoon of water from the bucket to the liquid measuring cups. Whichever filled it first, WON!
It could have been really exciting for the first group except Mr. Knife has, like the most monotone voice EVER, and refused to get excited about a water game. He mumbled the directions and didn't think to explain the situation to the students, so natch, they got bored quickly and began to dissolve into chatty little pockets, talking big for the young teens they were.
When the second arrived, I stepped in to help whip some enthusiasm, and behavior reinforcement into the kids. For some reason, little kids impressed by shiny tend to pay attention to me, so it wasn't hard to keep the other groups motivated, despite Mr. Knife's incongruous position. Knife is a second year teacher, and if his classroom manner is anything like his presence on that bright, crisp morning in Prospect Park, I'm sad for the students who probably aren't learning much from a guy who doesn't seem to be able to shoot straight in the dark.
Needless to say, after a day like that, Miss Bones and I were exhausted, so I took a long nap instead of going to the premiere for "Where the Wild Things Are," which I've heard described as an hour and a half of Spike Jonze chasing some Hollywood Ganymede through the skeleton of a burnt forest while James Gandolfini muttered to a Karen O. soundtrack. "Lovely, yet devoid of content," were my friend's words.
With that, the first load is washed and hanging on the line.
On to the second.
I'll admit, it's been way too long since I've offered an update. Blogs are a bit like laundry.
The longer you go without doing it, the more you're going to have to do when you finally decide to sort every dirty scrap and take it to be washed--probably requiring more than one trip to the machines--assuming you had enough clean underwear to get away with that sort of thing.
I'm wearing clean underwear, and doing laundry, so why don't I begin at the beginning and tell you what's happened since I last washed my unmentionables--er, updated this blog?
Load One:
I'll start with the field day my friend AJ--let's call her Miss Bones, planned back for October 14.
First of all, the honor for being the reason she was able to help organize such a great day for the freshman class at the school where she teaches goes to THE COLLEGE BOARD. The Oak-leafed Testing Bureaucracy had scheduled the Preliminary S.A.T./National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which most high-schools administer to the Sophomore and Junior Classes.
As a C.A.P. advisor last year, my 15 hours a week at MAST allowed me to plan an incredibly boring last minute college fair and financial aid lecture for the Senior class, while the rest of the school got familiar with the ol' College Board. A chilly morning in Prospect Park was way more exciting.
Miss Bones and her co-workers (mostly Humanities teachers at the Brooklyn School) organized a well-structured event, broken down into Alpha platoon and Bravo platoon. In each platoon about five rotating squads of soldiers, supervised at each activity station by at least one teacher and one other warm body.
I was assigned to work with Mr. Knife, the freshman History teacher (His name is from the French for blade, lame)
Our station was equipped with two big buckets of water, two liquid measuring cups that held 4 cups, two tablespoons and two teaspoons. Miss Bones had me carry some hula hoops to the park, for her station which involved the students holding hands and not being able to let go, while they maneuvered the hoop around each person in the chain.
Each squad that appeared at our station was divided into two fire teams whose objective it was to safely transport a tablespoon of water from the bucket to the liquid measuring cups. Whichever filled it first, WON!
It could have been really exciting for the first group except Mr. Knife has, like the most monotone voice EVER, and refused to get excited about a water game. He mumbled the directions and didn't think to explain the situation to the students, so natch, they got bored quickly and began to dissolve into chatty little pockets, talking big for the young teens they were.
When the second arrived, I stepped in to help whip some enthusiasm, and behavior reinforcement into the kids. For some reason, little kids impressed by shiny tend to pay attention to me, so it wasn't hard to keep the other groups motivated, despite Mr. Knife's incongruous position. Knife is a second year teacher, and if his classroom manner is anything like his presence on that bright, crisp morning in Prospect Park, I'm sad for the students who probably aren't learning much from a guy who doesn't seem to be able to shoot straight in the dark.
Needless to say, after a day like that, Miss Bones and I were exhausted, so I took a long nap instead of going to the premiere for "Where the Wild Things Are," which I've heard described as an hour and a half of Spike Jonze chasing some Hollywood Ganymede through the skeleton of a burnt forest while James Gandolfini muttered to a Karen O. soundtrack. "Lovely, yet devoid of content," were my friend's words.
With that, the first load is washed and hanging on the line.
On to the second.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)