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Haven't posted in over a week...brought to my attention by a faithful reader. (Nice to have a faithful reader!)
The big news here is that Barry started working last night. He's working for Ohel, as a caretaker in a residence for developmentally disabled people. It's an overnight shift, which will be an adjustment for both of us. He works 10 pm-8-am on Sundays, then 11-8 Mondays-Wednesdays. Most of the shift, he has very little to do (and makes a very low wage for those hours). Around 6:30 am, he's responsible to wake and dress etc one of the residents; they pay a higher rate for the "awake" hours.
The other thing that's truly wonderful about this is that Barry has always been uncomfortable around people with physical and mental disabilities, so this is a huge thing from him. Frankly, I was a little surprised that he applied for it at all. It's a big growing-up thing.
I'll hit my one-year anniversary here in two days. I do like my job. It's varied, and the people are lovely. I get a lot of positive feedback. Recently, I helped a group with two lectures they put on, which is part of my job (we have about half a dozen groups here that put on seminars, lectures, etc), but I guess they thought I went above and beyond. The leaders (faculty) gave me a $150 Visa gift card as a thank-you!
Then, of course, I had this gift card, and a zillion ways I wanted to spend it. I do think it's right to keep my bonuses and gifts for myself, except that we were in a dreadful financial squeeze. So I went to an Indian clothing store on 8th Street (it's at 51 West 8th, I forget the name, but it's a great shop), and bought a top, a skirt, and some pants for a total of $50. Then Barry and I went to Shop-Rite on Saturday and bought $60 worth of groceries. And I still have $40 left. Pretty fair, I think.
Money will of course be a little easier now that Barry is earning, but it won't be close to what it used to be. Still, I'll be glad not to have these months where we become flat broke at the beginning of each month. We really haven't been making it on my salary alone, and have ended up selling things (unwanted jewelry, stereo speakers, etc) to make ends meet. It's humbling and sometimes wrenching.
Having said this...we may get ourselves a fourth cat. Patricia, the cat rescue lady who tables across from Union Square, likes me and generally lets me hold the cats (a no-no for most people). Last week, I came up to the table and she handed me a half-grown orange tabby, who cuddled in, rubbed his face against mine, and purred. I brought Barry the next day and he held him, and also immediately bonded. We've only ever had female cats, but this male is extremely sweet. Patricia tend to balk when it comes to actually turning over a cat (we had an incident where we waited weeks for her to make up her mind about a calico kitten, and simply gave up because the waiting was killing us). I hope she'll give this cat up more easily, since it's way harder to find a home for a 6-8 month old cat than for a tiny kitten. Of course, we have already named him: Vijay. It's partly in honor of the character name Amitabh frequently uses.
No word yet on the jewelry I've had at The Village Scandal for over a month. I've been trying to call the owner for a few weeks now to arrange a time to come down, but she never returns calls. I'm not holding out a lot of hope.
I started making myself an anklet last night, because it's that time of year. (Amber and apatite, golden yellow and ocean blue.) I've also started thinking that maybe what I need to do is find a store where my jewelry goes with the clothing, and then try to place some pieces there. If I can find the right match, maybe I can do some regular selling.
Since I wrote last, I watched 3 Idiots, with Aamir Khan. If it were an American movie, the title would indicate something shitty, along the lines of Dumb and Dumber. But this was actually a wonderful and not-stupid movie. I'm not sure if I wrote about the Tamil film Nanban, but it was a remake of 3 Idiots. (I'd actually made a point of watching Nanban first, since I assumed the Hindi film was a remake; good Tamil and Telugu films are often remade in Hindi versions.) The film is about three pals in their college days, and a surprising reunion later in life. It's basically a buddy movie, though one of the guys does have a romance (who is, of course, Kareena Kapoor...it seems to be illegal to make an Indian film without her these days). Khan's character, "Rancho," is as compelling as Vijay's similar character, "Pari," in the Tamil version. It's a great story about friendship, and the actors are quite compelling. Quite a few peeing jokes, for some reason.
Two American films this weekend: I watched a camera-copy bootleg of Hunger Games, since I'd just finished the books (wonderful) and was anxious to see the movie. The movie was quite good, although so much gets edited out, and I found the male leads to be kind of so-so. Jennifer Lawrence was very good even if she was 22 playing 14 or 15 or 16, can't exactly remember.
The other was Shame, which was quite good. It's a strong portrayal of the bottoming-out of a sex addict, although frankly I found the plot with his sister a little distracting and not needed.
Oh dear...I did have a lot to catch up on here. And there's probably more that I'm not thinking of.
There's a new Ram Gopal Varma movie, Department, opening next month, and Amitabh is one of the leads. I've probably mentioned how much I like RGV's films - he's a big fan of American genre movies and steals from them quite liberally. He also uses Amitabh beautifully. I'll have to make a point of seeing it in the theater.
I'll end it here for now, and there will doubtless be postscripts dribbling in...
The big news here is that Barry started working last night. He's working for Ohel, as a caretaker in a residence for developmentally disabled people. It's an overnight shift, which will be an adjustment for both of us. He works 10 pm-8-am on Sundays, then 11-8 Mondays-Wednesdays. Most of the shift, he has very little to do (and makes a very low wage for those hours). Around 6:30 am, he's responsible to wake and dress etc one of the residents; they pay a higher rate for the "awake" hours.
The other thing that's truly wonderful about this is that Barry has always been uncomfortable around people with physical and mental disabilities, so this is a huge thing from him. Frankly, I was a little surprised that he applied for it at all. It's a big growing-up thing.
I'll hit my one-year anniversary here in two days. I do like my job. It's varied, and the people are lovely. I get a lot of positive feedback. Recently, I helped a group with two lectures they put on, which is part of my job (we have about half a dozen groups here that put on seminars, lectures, etc), but I guess they thought I went above and beyond. The leaders (faculty) gave me a $150 Visa gift card as a thank-you!
Then, of course, I had this gift card, and a zillion ways I wanted to spend it. I do think it's right to keep my bonuses and gifts for myself, except that we were in a dreadful financial squeeze. So I went to an Indian clothing store on 8th Street (it's at 51 West 8th, I forget the name, but it's a great shop), and bought a top, a skirt, and some pants for a total of $50. Then Barry and I went to Shop-Rite on Saturday and bought $60 worth of groceries. And I still have $40 left. Pretty fair, I think.
Money will of course be a little easier now that Barry is earning, but it won't be close to what it used to be. Still, I'll be glad not to have these months where we become flat broke at the beginning of each month. We really haven't been making it on my salary alone, and have ended up selling things (unwanted jewelry, stereo speakers, etc) to make ends meet. It's humbling and sometimes wrenching.
Having said this...we may get ourselves a fourth cat. Patricia, the cat rescue lady who tables across from Union Square, likes me and generally lets me hold the cats (a no-no for most people). Last week, I came up to the table and she handed me a half-grown orange tabby, who cuddled in, rubbed his face against mine, and purred. I brought Barry the next day and he held him, and also immediately bonded. We've only ever had female cats, but this male is extremely sweet. Patricia tend to balk when it comes to actually turning over a cat (we had an incident where we waited weeks for her to make up her mind about a calico kitten, and simply gave up because the waiting was killing us). I hope she'll give this cat up more easily, since it's way harder to find a home for a 6-8 month old cat than for a tiny kitten. Of course, we have already named him: Vijay. It's partly in honor of the character name Amitabh frequently uses.
No word yet on the jewelry I've had at The Village Scandal for over a month. I've been trying to call the owner for a few weeks now to arrange a time to come down, but she never returns calls. I'm not holding out a lot of hope.
I started making myself an anklet last night, because it's that time of year. (Amber and apatite, golden yellow and ocean blue.) I've also started thinking that maybe what I need to do is find a store where my jewelry goes with the clothing, and then try to place some pieces there. If I can find the right match, maybe I can do some regular selling.
Since I wrote last, I watched 3 Idiots, with Aamir Khan. If it were an American movie, the title would indicate something shitty, along the lines of Dumb and Dumber. But this was actually a wonderful and not-stupid movie. I'm not sure if I wrote about the Tamil film Nanban, but it was a remake of 3 Idiots. (I'd actually made a point of watching Nanban first, since I assumed the Hindi film was a remake; good Tamil and Telugu films are often remade in Hindi versions.) The film is about three pals in their college days, and a surprising reunion later in life. It's basically a buddy movie, though one of the guys does have a romance (who is, of course, Kareena Kapoor...it seems to be illegal to make an Indian film without her these days). Khan's character, "Rancho," is as compelling as Vijay's similar character, "Pari," in the Tamil version. It's a great story about friendship, and the actors are quite compelling. Quite a few peeing jokes, for some reason.
Two American films this weekend: I watched a camera-copy bootleg of Hunger Games, since I'd just finished the books (wonderful) and was anxious to see the movie. The movie was quite good, although so much gets edited out, and I found the male leads to be kind of so-so. Jennifer Lawrence was very good even if she was 22 playing 14 or 15 or 16, can't exactly remember.
The other was Shame, which was quite good. It's a strong portrayal of the bottoming-out of a sex addict, although frankly I found the plot with his sister a little distracting and not needed.
Oh dear...I did have a lot to catch up on here. And there's probably more that I'm not thinking of.
There's a new Ram Gopal Varma movie, Department, opening next month, and Amitabh is one of the leads. I've probably mentioned how much I like RGV's films - he's a big fan of American genre movies and steals from them quite liberally. He also uses Amitabh beautifully. I'll have to make a point of seeing it in the theater.
I'll end it here for now, and there will doubtless be postscripts dribbling in...
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