Houston, we have benefits

After yet two more sojourns to the public assistance center at Coney Island, we have an EBT card with food stamp money on it, and we supposedly have Medicaid and rent assistance.  We will get a second card for Medicaid and the option to choose an HMO, which will come in the mail.  The rent assistance goes directly to the landlord and will we get a notice.

The good news is that it's all retroactive to the month we applied, so we have over $600 in food stamps and our first rent benefit will be around $500, which is about half our rent.  Couldn't have come at a better time.  I was hoping especially to get the food stamps soon so as to conserve our cash.  Actually, our wonderful sister-in-law treated us to a big load of groceries from a big supermarket this past week, so we're fairly well stocked on essentials, but we can use it for smaller things in the neighborhood, and then do a big shop at Shop Rite when we need to.  Barry's going to go down to a favorite Chinese market tomorrow to buy loads of fish (we have a kosher fish market right nearby, but the prices are about twice as high).

I even got my free cell phone, which is very cute.  I actually read all of the instructions so I know how to use pretty much all the features (we somehow never bothered to do that on the prepaid phone).  And I got my free glucose meter on Thursday, so when I run out of strips for the one I have, I can start using the ones Harriet sent.

Barry and I have been assigned to WEP, which is what they used to call "workfare."  You work three days a week and go to the job center two days -- like going to the job center, the WEP job entitles you to your benefits, but doesn't pay any kind of salary.  Luckily, we were able to be assigned to office work rather than janitorial; we both have to report to orientation at the city Office of Housing Preservation and Development (I think that's the name of the agency...I keep getting it confused with the Landmark Preservation one).  No telling yet if we'll be assigned to the same office or even what borough.  Doesn't start until the 21st.

I guess WEP is good in the sense that it gets us out of the job center for three days, which breaks things up a bit.  It's bad, though, because it's time away from real job-hunting -- you can get excused from WEP if you have an interview, but you can't actually spend the time looking for work.  At the job center, you can job-hunt in the computer room if there's a free station, or you can get excused for "independent job search" (this is supposed to be other than e-mail job searching -- you have to fill out a form saying where you went to drop off your resume or whatever).

It's all a good safety net.  The system seems to work, no matter how bureaucratic it seems at times.  On Thursday, I had to go to Coney Island to give in some papers that Barry put in our caseworker's hands two weeks ago.  Luckily, I was already excused for independent job search, which was actually a Word class at Connect-to-Care Thursday afternoon, so I could bring the papers to Coney Island in the morning.  Otherwise, it's kind of dicey, since Back-to-Work wants a letter from the public assistance office (HRA) if you have to miss BTW to go there, and HRA insists you don't need it and won't give you one.  (So far, we've had appointment letters when we've had to go to HRA, have a home visit, or go to BEV to verify our identities.)  So it's a pile of hassles, but if you're very patient, it seems to work.

Better news:  I have an interview Monday.  I got a call from a guy who said he'd seen my resume (I'm not exactly sure where, probably one of the job sites where I had it posted), and wanted to see me about a job very similar to the one I had at Dweck...and it's at Zabar's!  Zabar's is one of the great great great New York gourmet stores, although it started as (and continues to be) an appetizing store.  (Another lesson in all things Jewish:  "appetizing" is basically all of the things Jews put on bagels, particularly the smoked fish like lox and whitefish, plus the various plain and flavored cream cheeses.  It is very desirable to find an appetizing store where they actually slice the lox to order, rather than sell it prepackaged.  I only know of three remaining in Manhattan, including Zabar's, though there may be a few still in Brooklyn.  There used to be a lot more, but now there are very few.)  Apart from appetizing, Zabar's has all kinds of wonderful baked goods and gourmet foods, plus they have an excellent selection of housewares.

The guy who called me from there was very nice, and I felt we had a good rapport.  I really like the idea of doing production at Zabar's...I could make sure the smoked sable gets in on time!  I could take my pay home in whitefish salad!  He asked what I had earned at Dweck, and didn't make uh-oh noises.  I'm really looking forward to the interview.  Sounds like it could be a mighty good job.

Luna Park didn't call -- they were supposed to decide by the end of the week -- and I admit I did relax myself a bit last night.  I do so enjoy that bit of relaxation.

OK -- I'm fascinated by all of this insane Charlie Sheen stuff.  Yeah, I do feel bad because he's a terrible addict and probably also mentally ill...but I can't help but be entertained by the trainwreck.  And the jokes are just too funny.  This one is one of my faves.

south of north of Coney

In other words, Coney Island.

One:  I had the interview at Luna Park the other day. I was interviewed for the less-qualified position, and there are actually two of them, exactly the same, except that one will start sooner than the other.  The woman who interviewed me was lovely, and I think I did well.  She didn't mention money, but the job developer said it was $12-14 per hour, which is really less than I would like, but I'll try to talk them up to 15 or 16 if I get an offer.  It's seasonal, and would end in October.  The office is right inside Luna, and the job would entail a certain amount of time outside the office in the park, distributing paychecks and schmoozing employees to try to avoid the 67% turnover they experienced last summer.  The temp aspect of it works for me -- hey, who wants to be in Coney during the winter?  Also, they would require a drug test.

Sidebar:  I do not approve of drug testing, though of course I said I would take one.  Here's the thing -- if the issue is illegality, a background check would clear that up.  If the issue is possible intoxication on the job, who don't they ban any use of alcohol?  What if someone comes in hung over?  Also, there are a lot of prescribed drugs that might show up in a test.  I believe that Adderall (prescribed for ADHD in adults as well as kids) contains some sort of amphetamine.  Some people still take old-school antidepressants which are barbiturates.  I myself have a prescription for lorazepam (generic Atavan), a low dosage for bouts of anxiety.  And how about the whole issue of violation of civil liberties?  It's one thing if someone shows up at work obviously intoxicated, but what someone does on their own time should be their own business.  I generally do not apply for jobs where it's indicated up front that they drug test.  I think it's very wrong.

That having been said, I have decided that it's a good idea to start taking a goldenseal supplement and drinking a lot of fresh-squeezed lemon juice.

Two:  I had to go to the Coney Island HRA center this morning (luckily, I was excused for "independent job search," which is actually a Connect-to-Care computer class this afternoon).  They needed to make copies of documents that Barry handed to our caseworker two weeks ago.  These people may be overworked, but that doesn't mean they aren't fucking morons.  The woman who called wasn't our caseworker, but we referred her to him several times.  We find it impossible to get him on the phone, but you'd think this woman could have gone from the second floor to the third, walked to his desk, and asked for out file.  You'd think.  But no, I had to bring the suckers again this morning.  And as I said, it was a good thing I was already excused from Back-to-Work, because they require a document from HRA if you have to be there during work hours, and HRA insists that you don't need a document and they won't give you one.  Which of course, can put you at risk of -- all together now -- being FTC'ed.  Apparently they are FTC'ing people like mad because BTW is so overcrowded.

So Mrs. Abramova at HRA said that I had to bring the documents this morning by noon, and that I should go to the second floor and call her extension.  I was there before 10, and called her extension several times, and it didn't answer.  The receptionist didn't know who she was.  The receptionist asked me for her extension, and then she dialed it and got no answer,  Gee, thanks.  Finally, on my tenth time calling her extension, another woman who happened to be walking past Mrs. A's cubicle picked up the phone, told me Mrs. A was in a training session, but that she, Mrs. G, could copy the documents and put them on Mrs. A's desk.  Since I was a little concerned that these might meet the same fate as the documents Barry handed to the caseworker (not left on his desk -- HANDED to him), I came home and left a voice mail for Mrs. A and said that Mrs. G had left the documents on her desk, and that she should please call if she still didn't have them.  (I left out the part about her asking me to see her by noon when she was going to be in a training session.)

I hadn't noticed before that the HRA office is right behind the old Child's on the Boardwalk, which I believe Lola Star has converted into a roller rink.  HRA is about eight blocks west of the amusement area, past the baseball stadium (which used to be Keyspan Park but I've forgotten the new name).  It's kind of creepy and deserted there this time of year.  I thought about walking back to the subway via the Boardwalk, but my feeling was that the Boardwalk would also be creepy and deserted.  Plus, it was extremely cold.  It figures that I was at Back-to-Work yesterday when it was 51 degrees out, but at Coney Island today when it was 28 (plus the wind off the water is mighty strong).

Whether I'm working there or not, I look forward to seeing Coney in the summer.  I look forward to having a hot dog at Nathan's, even if I can't eat the roll (and have to skip the fries).

I'm not sure if I ever mentioned this, but I wrote a poem some years back called "palm sunday, coney island," which was actually published.  It was in a small literary magazine called "Exit 19" or Exit something, comprised of poetry and stories that all involved a place.  They never sent me my copy, and I no longer have a copy of the poem.  I do remember the phrase "the sturdy inaugural turn of the wonder wheel" (I wrote everything in lower case back then...maybe I thought I was e.e. cummings).  I know that I actually wrote it on the subway -- I had traveled backwards to Coney to pick up another train line (a number of lines terminate there).  And it was Palm Sunday, which is the first day every year that the rides begin to operate.  (They run on weekends only until Memorial Day.)  I looked out the subway window and felt very Coney, and scribbled down the poem then and there.  (I wrote poetry very quickly and usually at one sitting.)  Most of my poetry is lost now, but I do remember parts of a few good ones.

Mitzvahs (or is it "mitzvoth"?) of the week:  my sister-in-law Elise, who would be a saint if there were Jewish saints, went to a Jewish non-profit (she works for one and knows them all), and brought a pile of free dressier clothes for Barry.  Three suits, maybe a dozen button-down shirts, and as many ties.  (You can't wear jeans to Back-to-Work, so Barry's basically been doing it in one pair of black chinos.)

Then Elise offered to take me to the supermarket and she would pay.  (This is a double mitzvah since we don't have a good supermarket close by and she drives.)  So I did a pretty serious shop, and got us stocked up on things I can eat and things Barry can eat (which are almost total opposites at this point).  It was a good shop, and except for the fruits and vegetables, should last us for a good bit.  I'm hoping we'll get food stamps within a couple of weeks.

I'm concentrating my job hunt on creative companies and universities.  I need work soon, but I'd prefer somewhere that I can be happy, and hopefully make a decent wage.  After these CTC classes, my Word and Excel will be sharp, and I'll have Powerpoint and Quickbooks.