Three Weeks and Counting

It's hard to believe it's already Saturday again. I have continued to submit applications and resumes to various companies in the area. I must admit, it's getting a little discouraging. Both Dana (a friend and reference) and Lisa (a former boss and reference) have said that no one has called for any information. Both have assured me they would give glowing (and obviously true) references. Apparently, the end of August is a tough time to get a job. Many places have said they are looking for something in the next two weeks. Hopefully, my phone will start ringing.

Enough of the depressing stuff. I had signed up on a couple of secret shopper websites and actually did two this week. Certainly, those jobs aren't hard, but they are more time consuming than you might first think. One was an inspection of a self storage unit, and the other was for Papa John's Pizza. Each needed very specific photos and information. I may sign up to do a couple more in the week coming up. They don't pay much, but when it makes up train fare, it's all good.

There's not a whole lot to tell this week because most of my time was spent at home filling out apps. Last weekend, tho, was Pride in Jersey City. People asked me what I thought of my first Pride here, and I hated to tell them, but I did. I'm used to a city where the Pride parade is two hours long. JC doesn't even have a parade. The festival is much smaller, but the entertainment was pretty good. Of course, when I said the parade is two hours in Columbus, someone piped up and said the parade in New York is five. I imagine it's pretty big, but c'mon. Five hours? If that's true, my attention span will give out long before the end of the parade. We will see. Two weeks ago, I almost left before the Puerto Rican Day parade was over. Luckily, the street sweepers came around the corner just about the time I was getting up. I thought it was quite a clever way to wrap up a parade.

Can you believe the unofficial end of summer is here? Ugh! According to the calendar, there's still 22 days of summer left. I fully intend to take advantage of every one of them. Well, as soon as I get some work, and have some money to spend. (Notice a theme here?) Charity and I received an invitation to a cookout tomorrow evening. That ought to be a good time. Charity has to go out of town on Wednesday next week. That ought to be a good time, too! Until next week, have fun!

Filling My Time

Well, this week, I spent oodles of time sending resumes, filling out applications, and even going to one interview. It was for a doorman position in The City. (That's how the locals refer to Manhattan. To ask, "Which city?" is not cool in these parts.) It would be for a (relatively) small apartment building on the Upper East Side. Aside from that, the week was peppered with free things to do.

Last weekend was the Puerto Rican festival in Jersey City. I have it on good authority that the parade here last Sunday was comparable to the one in New York. Maybe next year I'll find out for myself. I secretly must admit tho, that I hope my career does not become one of critiquing ethnic parades in the region.

I've thought about blogging the bathroom report. The problem for me with having an idea like that pop into my head, is that every time I walk into a bathroom, I think "What would I write about this one?" The Hollywood Diner on 16th St and 6th Ave has a clean bathroom, but very, very small. One should probably back into it. The White Horse Tavern on W 11th St and Hudson St has a deceptively small door. I saw it yesterday and began backing in, but when the door opened, the room was much larger than I first thought. The long and the short of it (or the big and the small) is that every place has a bathroom. Some are best avoided.

I still feel like a tourist every time I go into The City. Yesterday, I went to pick up an application and took some typical tourist snapshots. In 1991, the second time I visited Manhattan, one of my few requests was to see the Flatiron Building. something about one of the first skyscrapers and the fact that it is triangular was interesting to me. In my walk yesterday, I saw it again and got what I believe to be a beautiful shot of it. What do you think? (Hint: If you click on the photo, it opens a larger one in the window.)

Certainly, there is no shortage of things to write about, now that I'm in the nerve center of the world, but I'm gonna sign off for now, so there's something to write about next week.

Meditation and Moving

Taken from the May 2003 issue of Elle Magazine in an article about meditation:

"Meditation is a practice; it has its own momentum. The best advice I can give is to begin slowly and claim it as a choice-the way a marriage, a move to another state, or a birth can be a choice. Then it's your responsibility, and there's great freedom in that."

As I was reading that, (and you may ask why I was reading a back issue from 2003, or even why I was reading Elle Magazine at all) the words jumped off the page. I chose to take the opportunity to move to New Jersey, and couldn't be more excited about the possibilities. But, there is also responsibility. I have to find a job. The sooner, the better. I've sent several resumes, but there are stacks of opportunities in my inbox right now. I've been here for 12 days and have already had one interview. That was a bit of a confidence booster, but how long can that carry me? There have been some opportunities that have come up this weekend. I think this is the week for something to happen.

I went for a walk yesterday. A coupon from Rite Aid led me on my quest. It was a simple coupon for Coca-Cola. I decided to find the nearest Rite Aid which isn't so near walking. It ended up being just over four miles round trip, but I got to learn more about my adopted city. It was a nice walk, but I thought my arms were going to fall off by the time I got back. Twelve-16.9 oz bottles of Coke are NOT light. Today, I will make the trek to Target. I'm terribly upset that I forgot my camera, tho.

The photographic opportunities are endless, even in Jersey City. I saw a mural on the side of a building yesterday-the back of Lady Liberty's head. The detail was exact. There's art everywhere. A newspaper here is running a photography contest of the waterfalls in New York. I submitted a couple photos for consideration.

I need to get moving and do my shopping. It's 9:00. I could be back by noon. Then, it's another afternoon of looking and sending and applying. Incidentally, I was reading Elle because between sending resumes and pounding the pavement, I'm reading a stack of magazines I've been carying around for years. How or why I have that particular magazine is anyone's guess.

Here is a picture of the Brooklyn Bridge.