Work Work Work

I'm a busy little bee, well not really. This week is slow at work like every other office I'm sure. If I were working retail, I'm sure I'd be running around like a maniac helping customers, folding sweaters and climbing up and down stairs to get that item from the storeroom. I am considering getting a retail job at a nice store somewhere in Manhattan - either Crate & Barrel or Williams-Sonoma.

As I focus more and more on the idea of taking care of a family, the lure of a part-time job is getting stronger and stronger. I so much enjoy keeping a house but it takes quite a bit of work to stay on top of things. Working full-time leaves only the evenings for taking care of business at home. And working out - forget about it. I just can't do everything and I really like working out. I don't know how some women do it. Well, I guess I do. They just do it or they have help.

Michael Vale - RIP

The Dunkin Donuts guy passed away. That makes me feel a little sad. I loved those Dunkin Donut commercials. I'm sure he had other acting jobs but I couldn't tell you one without consulting his resume. He was definitely best known as the guy who woke up bright and early every day, dragged himself to work and uttered the famous phrase "It's time to make the donuts" with such dread. You could really identify with him. Sometimes when I wake up early to go to work, I can hear his voice saying that phrase, because his delivery of that line perfectly captures that feeling of early morning obligation. He played Fred the Baker for 15 years.

He was 83 years old when he passed over - family says it was because of complications due to diabetes. RIP Michael Vale

Vincent Schiavelli - RIP

Character actor Vincent Schiavelli died. He was only 57 years old. That's too young. He acted in everything from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to Fast Times at Ridgemont High. He used his unconventional looks to his advantage in order to carve out a niche for himself in the acting profession. Of his list of movies, Death to Smoochy was my favorite performance because of the contrast between his looks and his character. He played a former star of children's television turned drug addict/killer for hire. I thought it was inspired. You would have to see Death to Smoochy to understand. The humor came a little bit from his odd looks - you can't imagine him as a star of children's programming.

Lung cancer got him in the end.

Rest in Peace.

(not Vincent Schiavelli's actual lungs)

Zoey

Zoey is our guest. She is visiting us from a NYC neighborhood known as Hell's Kitchen. We are letting her stay with us while her roommate visits London and Paris for the holidays.

As you can see she is doing well, but just before I took this picture she told Jon and me how much she misses her roommate and wishes that she returns soon from her travels.













We're trying hard not to spoil her. But it's very difficult. We feel bad that she feels abandoned by her roommate and we want to make this visit as pleasant for her as possible.

The MTA Strike Is Over . . .

. . . and trains and buses should be up and running for tomorrow morning's commute. I'm glad that the situation was settled and that we don't have to walk these long distances any longer. Things will go back to normal or will they? How am I going to feel when I see transit workers tomorrow? I'm always going to resent the TWU Local 100 and the employees they represent for inconveniencing the city this way.

There never should have been a strike. When a child throws a temper tantrum, the usual advice is to ignore the child as long as he/she isn't hurting himself or anybody else around him/her. Eventually the child will calm down.

What happens when grownsups throw tantrums in the form of a strike? Do you give in or do you let the tantrum play itself out?

I resent the TWU and I always will.

59th St. Bridge - After Dark

The cold walk home in the dark was very difficult. I thought it would have been the same as this morning but it wasn't. It was more crowded, colder and felt longer. My good friend Dave met me at my office at 5pm and we headed out. By the time we got to bridge my legs were starting to stiffen up. As we were descending the Queens side the arch in my left foot started cramping painfully. Wouldn't you know it? There at the base of the bridge on Northern Blvd. was a Red Cross van handing out coffee and hot chocolate to the cold and weary pedestrians. It warmed my heart but unfortunately not my body which was stiffening from the feet up.

When I walked into the front door at 7:15 I was achy everywhere. I sat down on the bed and slowly reached for my toes to release my locked up lower back. A few minutes later I hobbled over to the tub and ran myself a hot bath. Before the tub was even full, I was in there soaking. Slowly, my muscles warmed and everything loosened up. The only casualties remaining are my feet which are pretty achy. I'm not sure what fallen arches feel like or what that expression means but I think my arches may have fallen. Because every step I take is painful.

I won't be walking in again tomorrow. As a matter of fact, I worked it out with my boss that I work from home. I packed a few projects in my bag pack before I left with Dave. If the weather were warmer I really think I could do it but this cold weather makes it too difficult.

I really, really thought I could pull it off without too much trouble.

It's Cold Out There

Well. I did it. I walked to work. It wasn't surprising to see so many people, after all what else are they going to do? I was surprised to see so few cars in town. The city is locked down pretty tight to traffic. Fifth Avenue was barren, Madison practically empty. Second Avenue was the only place I saw any real traffic - coming off the Queensboro bridge.

So here's how it went.

At 8:30 my Vidiot knocked on our door and we all ventured out together into the freezing cold. And it was freezing cold. We walked straight down quiet 29th Street all the way to Northern Blvd. where we hung a right for the bridge. That's where all the people were. Walking together into the city like a great big community of walkers. Except nobody was talking to each other outside of their own little group, so it really wasn't so much a community as it was a bunch of people walking across a bridge at the same time.

Thanks to Vidiot we have this great picture of us before we starting walking over the bridge. Sadly, I didn't get any good pictures of Vidiot.

We were up and over the bridge by 9:40 when we decided to stop for a moment at the RED CROSS van that was set up on the Manhattan side of the 59th Street bridge, to give commuters TLC by way of coffee and hot chocoloate. I guess it was around 9:50 when we parted ways with Vidiot at Park and 60th.

Jon and I continued down Park until Grand Central where we cut through the Met Life building for warmth. At 42nd Street we walked west to Madison which was completely abandoned. Madison Avenue has been designated for use by Emergency vehicles. I left Jon at a coffee shop on 37th and Madison and continued alone on to 25th and Broadway, my final destination.

I arrived at work around 10:30 or so. I was sweating in some areas while other parts of my body were freezing cold. My thighs are still warming up. Tonight I'll walk home with a friend who is meeting me at my office later on today. It should take us two hours or so.

But I'd rather do that than have the city give in to the ridiculous demands of the TWU.

People Walking

I'm biting the bullet and walking into work today. I stayed home yesterday. I wanted to see how the city's contingency plan worked out before giving it a go. There weren't any reports of people getting hurt walking through crappy neighborhoods so, I figure it safe enough. This morning I'm walking with two escorts - my husband and my neighbor.

All day I watched and listened to stories about how long it took people to get to work - the people who walked did it in less time. The people who tried to get rides with others in cars, vans or busses took up to 4 hours. I know from experience that Jon and I have walked to my work neighborhood in two hours and sometimes less depending on how quicly we're hoofing it.

We're lucky we live so close. If I lived further out in Queens there is no way I would walk to work. The way it stands now, it's about a three mile walk. That's far but it is doable.

Good luck to all of my fellow New Yorkers fighting to get their way to work. If it's real bad for you take the day off. Your boss will understand. He may not pay you, but he will understand.

We Saw the Messiah

Last night, before NYC MTA delivered its apocolyptic strike, Jon and I went with a couple of friends to see Handel's Messiah at Carnegie Hall. My uncle is a member of the Oratorio Society of New York and I've been going to see him perform the Messiah since even before he was a member of the society. Last night, I think may have been the last time I go see it. Now don't get me wrong. It's a beautiful piece of music but it's kind of slow and even though Carnegie Hall is the best place in the world to see chorale music performed, it's often crowded and uncomfortable.

Our party decided we would leave after the famous Hallelujah chorus. The thing is with the Messiah is there is a lot and I mean a lot of repetition. So, if a passage is slow there is a good chance that it is going to be slow for at least 5 minutes (which in Messiah time feels like half an hour) because the passage will be repeated about 6 times. There was one point where the Mezzo Soprano repeated the phrase "acquainted with grief" about 15 times during one of her solos. When she was done I whispered to Jon "Now we're all acquainted with grief". It was a particularly ponderous passage. While watching the performers I had a wicked thought - that Handel knew his piece was slow but still wanted people to hear it so he buried the most popular and entertaining part, the Hallelujah Chorus at the end of the second movement.

What would have improved my experience greatly was watching the performance from the comfort of the big bed I share with Jon. I was pooped by the time we got to Carnegie Hall. I had had a particularly draining day both emotionally and intellectually. But it was nice to get out. I've been a little complacent lately - staying indoors, keeping to myself.

Here we are outside Carnegie Hall after escaping from the Messiah.

How Toussaint Stole Christmas

The idea that the NY City transit workers are on strike is offensive. If the people who worked in the token boths were friendly; if the trains ran on time; if the conductors could give good explanations for why stuck trains are delayed; if the N or W train ever came before during or even after 4 R's and 2 Q trains before finally stopping so I can take it home to Queens - then I might even the least bit sympathetic. But I'm not.

But I'm sure New Yorkers will prevail in spite of the inconvenience. And I'm sure Times Square will be just as crowded as if the trains were still running. It'll be just like the scene in How the Grinch Stole Christmas where the Grinch is looking down on Whoville after stealing presents from all the Whos and he sees them holding hands and singing. But instead it will be Toussaint watching the happy bustling crowd on a rec room TV in the prison where he'll be spending Christmas.

New York City - Bahoo Bahoo. Well you get the idea.

It's Time Bill Gates and Bono Got Some Recognition

Wow. If these three people hadn't been put on the cover of Time Magazine I would never have known who they are, why they are famous or that Bono is a member of the Gates family.

Fuddy Duddy Alert

This is a special holiday decoration set up by the owners of our neighborhood diner. Do you get it? The Santas are supposed to be drunk from drinking too much wine - because they are carefully arranged in haphazard positions on the wine rack -that's how you can tell.

I never find this kind of humor funny. Finding drunks funny goes back one generation to people around my parents' age. This generation found Dean Martin's drunken shenanigans on stage irresistible and the drunken humor of Foster Brooks hilarious. It's the same kind of humor that led to those WB cartoons where the comedic circumstance is derived from a drunk STORK dropping a baby off at the wrong house.

People getting so drunk that they are making huge judgment errors is not funny. Maybe it was a reflection of the seemingly repressed times (the 40's and 50's) that made people appreciate this just a little bit more than should have been acceptable. Cultural fictional time capsules in the form of advertising, television and radio would have you believe that the 50's were a time of staid responsibility and finely structured social confines. To see someone behaving in a way so against the norm was probably funny - perhaps even envied.

But it's not funny now that we know about addiction and the health risks of too much tippling in addition to the number of people killed each year by people whose driving ability has been impaired by too much imbibing.

I find this display offensive.

What?!? No Transit Strike?!?!?

The Transit Workers Union (TWU), representing employees of the MTA in NYC has called their strike against two private bus lines, while negotiations continue for goodness knows only what. I'm baffled that anyone with a decent paying job that offers a pension and benefits would go on strike. I've been working for four years without insurance and I'm working full-time and in decent offices. I'm not going on strike. I haven't even had the option of paying into an insurance plan, which is one of the items being discussed at these contract negotations for the MTA. I was a city employee for a short time. The city takes care of its people. As a teacher I had a choice of at least 10 different plans with all different kinds of formulations. . .and people complained about that. Even if you have to pay into a plan like that, it's still worth it - especially if you can get regular checkups, tests, dental and as in the case of the teacher's insurance plan a free pair of eye glasses every year.

You would think we lived in a country where everybody is entitled to insurance. Well. We don't and we aren't. Small business owners DO NOT have to provide insurance for their employees which is why these cheap guys I've been working for of late have been able to get away with not providing benefits. And forget about raises. By a show of hands, how many of you out there get raises every year or every other year or even every five years? That's right. Not that many because you either don't have a job, work part-time or work for cheap people like me but do you quit? No. Because you need the job - because as much as the news reports that the economy is doing much better, it's still impossibly difficult to get a decent job.

Anyway, I am a little disappointed they didn't go on strike because I didn't want to go into work today.

Chicken Soup - Mmmm, Mmmm Good

Yesterday, I bought Norton's 2006 Antivirus program with a $20 rebate. Final cost - $19.99. Last night was all about making soup and installing Norton's. My new Tripp*Lite 10-outlet surge protector arrived yesterday from Overstock and I was going to do some work that would allow me to add my computer to our current computer set up but it was just too much.

My soup turned out great. I got home at 6:15 and started working on it immediately. I was preparing it for an hour. I quartered my chicken and diced all of the ingredients before adding them to the stock pot. Then when the chicken was practically falling off the bone, I pulled it out of the stock pot and ripped it shreds by hand. I strained out all of the bits and pieces that added to the soup's flavor, added the chicken and it was done.

Here's what I used.
7.5 quarts of water in an 8-quart stock pot
One small Murray's chicken
5 stalks of celery (diced)
4 carrots (diced)
5 tomatoes (diced)
2 onions (diced)
1 leak (minced)
1 green pepper (diced)
salt
paper
Old Bay seasoning
3 Herb Ox bouillon cubes

Oratorio Society of NY

My uncle is performing with his singing group (the Oratorio Society of New York) at Carnegie Hall on December 19th, 2005. Every year they get together and perform The Messiah. If you've never seen or heard chorale music performed live, it's an absolute must and The Messiah is a good piece of music to start with; especially for the holidays.

Sniffles

Just call me sniffles this morning. My nose is running - both backwards and forwards.
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I use Mozzilla Firefox as my browser and one of the cool little programs you can add to it is an Accuweather program that shows you the forecast for today and the following two. Little symbols tell you what you can expect. For example , tomorrow is going to be freezing cold so the symbol is a little thermometer with ice on it. Very cute. You click thru those symbols to get to the Accuweather site but if you roll your mouse over them, you get a mini-forecast.

I also have another weather bug from the Weather Channel (called Desktop Weather) that sits in the tool bar on my desktop, that just flashes the temperature for my locale. And it's flashing 15 degrees. Isn't that special?

How am I supposed to leave the comfort of my warm bed and go to the gym in 15 degree weather? That's why I didn't go this morning - well . . . that and I was sleeping.

Forbes Fictional Fifteen Richest

Forbes published their list of the fifteen richest fictional characters for 2005.



Santa Claus tops the list with a net worth of infinity. Also on the list are Willy Wonka, Mongomery Burns and Thurston Howell III. How do they determine who makes the list? You can read about their methodology here.

One Way or Another

Please visit my guest blogger's site - One Way or Another He keeps a slice of life blog like so many of us.

Guess What I Did Today

Here is a pile of my hair.


Here is my new haircut.

Winter In New York City

I recently posted a couple of pictures of flowers I took on our trip to Jamaica? Why? Because winter has settled in early this year and it's already starting to get cold. Friday morning we had snow. Snow makes everything look pretty - at first. Even the subway tracks.


The morning commute went on undisturbed.