About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
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July 30, 2009
Would you rather spend $250 for two nights in a standard hotel, or redeem (all) 60,000 Hilton points and save the cash?
The points took six years to accumulate because I’m not focused on collecting hotel points right now, but it’s currently only enough to only pay for, say, half a room in a desirable location like NYC or San Diego. In another six, assuming no difference in spending patterns, I could maybe get one room in a nice hotel, for a single night.
I was in a total bind for my interview yesterday, I needed a black bag and haven’t had time this month to find and buy a good one.
Pros: 1. It was only $30. On an unemployed budget, that’s doable.
2. It’s not as shiny as in the picture, so less cheap looking.
3. It’s very lightweight.
4. It’s soft. Not Super Soft, but soft.
5. It’s the right size for basic interview essentials with room left over for the suit jacket in hundred degree weather.
6. I already have it: I hate bag shopping so this could save me a lot of time and money.
Cons: 1. It’s polyurethane so it’s going to have a slightly plastic look on the handles and that looks disgusting when it breaks down
2. The front side zip pocket is surprisingly shallow
3. The bag is a little on the thing side (3 inches wide?)
4. It’s very slouchy. Seems like the slouchiness would be less professional looking.
5. It’s a mag-closure. I want my bags to be all things in all situations, and mag closure means it’s not waterproof.
6. But still, quality is a question. [companion to Pro #6]
July 29, 2009
It’s no surprise to those who geek out with me regularly, but for those of you who don’t (and there are many), I love David Mack.
It’s 90% nostalgic love because his work is what brought me home to comics again. His work, the lyrical writing and the beautiful haunting art, made me remember why I loved reading comics before Marvel and DC went series crossover mad, and made me mad.
10% is active love: the man is really nice in person and has a great smile. I visit his booth multiple times every Con. He made my Con in 2003 when he remembered my name and recognized me from across the room after meeting me once, three months prior. No joke, he’s really really nice.
For her 21st birthday, my lil cousin is receiving what I call the Mack Stack: a collection of all the Kabuki series, plus five sketch books he threw in free when I bought the rest of the books from him. All signed, all gorgeous beyond belief.
It’s been years since I gave her a really good present because we’ve only recently come to the point where we share interests. She is now the age I was when I was introduced to David Mack’s work, and while she won’t come to the discovery with the same surprise and joy of reviving an old love, I hope she appreciates the complexity of the characters and world that he created, and enjoys his incredible experimentation with art styles.
I’d love to share some Kabuki love with my readers …. perhaps a signed sketch book giveaway?
On the financial front: I embarked on this collection project because we were browsing through the 50% off booths at Con, and I found great condition Vols 1, 4 and 6 for a total of $21. [Cover Price total: ~60] Bought the other three for full price from him directly for $51, and he gave me 5 sketch books which are usually $4/each. I prefer to give my money to the creators/vendors directly when I can afford to.
July 28, 2009
Stuff is a bit of an obsession for me.
Wasting money on stuff that doesn’t do its job bothers me almost as much as wasting money does but sometimes I can’t resist the gimmes. Shiny things – I like. When that happens, I try to follow a one-in, one-out policy but in such a small space, over-accumulation is much too easy. Ultimately, I’ve got to get better at rejecting or selecting because the time spent on making the purchase right, whether by return, exchange, or gifting, is getting to be a bit much.
Every week, I’ll root out another box or corner, decide what objects are just collecting dust and start disposing. You’d think I’d have nothing left at this point, but alas, it’s a never-ending project to pare down my possessions.
Most recently, the pile of things to Deal With consisted of:
1) A never used lock replacement set from Home Depot
2) A pair of flats from Target that failed miserably
3) Four Breyer horses in good condition, one still in the box
4) two pairs of shoes from Endless.com that I simply couldn’t love
5) a couple stuffed animals
6) an old point and shoot camera [Lexio 70] that I stopped using years ago
7) a pile of old books that were sent my way for reading and disposal
8) a pair of running shoes, half a size too big
9) t-shirts from Con
I managed Items 1-3 before San Diego, getting ~$20 in merchandise credits from each store with surprisingly very little trouble, and gave the Breyers to a good friend whose daughter is just learning to walk. Her momma loves horses and is very excited to add to her daughter’s future collection. I know that they were worth money but not enough to make it worth the trouble of trying to find buyers. They weren’t valuable models, they were just to make me feel better about not having a horse of my own. Yep, definitely went through that girl loves horses stage but now I know they’re too expensive.
(4) The shoes were taken to the UPS store for return and that should kick almost a hundred dollars back onto my credit card, and the (5) running shoes were finally exchanged for a better size. Free exchange! I even got my feet sized: they’re 5.5 but you’re supposed to go half a size larger for running shoes, and my right foot is freakish so it needs a shoe yet another half size larger. [If anyone wants to buy me running shoes, you now know that I need a size 6.5.]
At Con, I bought a hilariously inappropriate (9) t-shirt from these guys, and later realized that there is no way I can wear it in public. No matter how funny it is, I just can’t think of a single time or place it’d be ok. Call me a prude if you must, I took the shirt back and asked them to give me a different one. There’s no point in paying $18 for a shirt I’ll only giggle over at home.
Looks like I’m just left with stuffed animals and books. The books will likely go into the paperbackswap pile that my friend manages, but what to do with the stuffeds? And the camera? I really don’t want to set up an Ebay store for the camera…. Craigslist? Must overcome laziness factor!
July 27, 2009
Good mornin’ all!
Most people have been up and about for hours, East Coast or West Coast, but this is my first morning post-freedom without any travel plans pending. That means a) waking up early and saying, “nope, goin’ back to sleep” and b) having a short list of errands to run before sitting around and reading comic books from Con. Ahhh yes, summer vacation!
……
Or, ahhhh, unemployment! Hmph, that’s not nearly as appealing.
As usual after a travel day, I couldn’t sleep at a decent hour last night, so I had to stay up reading, cleaning and then eating random snacks. *smh* Stale donuts really aren’t so bad, especially if they fulfill a craving. 🙂
So here’s the short list:
1. Return the rental car.
2. Finally complete the Cal Jobs thing.
3. Mail off porting life insurance paperwork.
4. Discover where that mysterious retirement contribution on July 21st came from. [Might there also be a mystery check?? One may hope.]
5. Catch up on blogs, try to retrain my mind to write again.
6. Calculate total damages to travel fund.
7. Ship shoes for return to Endless.com. Thank goodness for generous return policies!
8. Search for jobs online.
Anything else?
Oh yes, and churn up the gift money for a friend’s wedding present. I think I’m going to take the Thank You points premium hit and “pay” 7000 points for a $50 gift card. Worth it to me not to take that cash out of pocket after the spendiness of Comic Con, and I haven’t been able to make up my mind about what to redeem for in over 18 months anyway.
July 24, 2009
There was the insta-rage lady at the newly open, already crumbly pizza joint in Chelsea. A brown paper bag and crumbs on the bench seat set off a tirade, one part speculating, two parts accusatory, regarding the probable lupine parentage of previous patrons. There was the bewilderingly affronted lady, forced to stop for our street crossing when she came to the intersection and stop sign. Evidently had it not been for our outrageous legal use of the crosswalk, she’d no intentions of stopping. And then there was the bellowing chess player on the top step at Union Square. Screaming and shaking his righteous fist at the sky, he refused to be judged by an unseen, unidentified, unprintable word of an unspeakable origin. This was the New York I expected: a raucous landscape textured by the terse, the taciturn, displaced, misplaced fear or anger. My most vivid memory of New York to date was an extremely hostile woman on the subway, shoving her way through the mass of transit passengers and cursing out my luggage. This fit my mental picture.
It wasn’t until 45 minutes after boarding my return flight to Los Angeles, 45 minutes of creeping along the tarmac with no real intent to take off, that the real New York really settled into my bones.
Entering the city, the strobelights of the brilliant, the driven, were blinding. Time and again I was told: New York is the best city in the world. The food, top flight theater, medical centers, art, music, everything here was the best. [It’s worth the rent!] Residents and transplants alike resonate with an instinctive fight to survive, thrive and endure. To create, produce, dominate. It’s dirty, rough, very rough on the senses of a tenderfoot. The incredible anonymity and isolation was evident in the straight-ahead stares of so many fellow pedestrians, alien glares and snips and bites of the yellow cab drivers. It’s a prizefighter’s city, in a way. Nothing here comes without sacrifice and ever higher prices. How much a sacrifice, and of what, remains a point of pride among those who live(d) there. This I felt to be a true challenge of surviving this city.
Truth be told, I harbored a lurking, nibbling away fear that on July 1st, I’d arrive and immediately wish myself away, discover that I desperately wanted a job in New York while desperately hated the city. On July 4th, I could hardly fathom how complete strangers, incomplete strangers and acquaintances could be almost uniformly gracious, welcoming and friendly. By July 6th, I’d tentatively accepted that this strange city was stranger still than I’d imagined. By July 7th, I’d gone so far as to ask a random lady, another subway rider for an assessment of my appearance pre-interview. I was that nervous. And she was that nice, to approve my get-up and wish me well.
After extending my stay, I pointed half a dozen strangers, tourists all, along their way. I discovered that the subway system was navigable and had only gotten completely turned around underground twice. The subterranean treks, in no small part thanks to dressing for extreme humidity, were endlessly amusing as I muttered directions to myself, gesturing as needed, blending all too well the mentally unstable denizens of the streets. I still haven’t got the subways and all the stops down, but I note for posterity that the entrance at 60th and Lexington as an easy alternative to 59th and Lex is a lie, while the 59th and Lex escalator qualifies as Mt. Kinley when it’s not working. During one of many thunderstorms the first week, fellow pedestrians similarly caught without umbrellas chatted easily about the weather and their interrupted days. Again, I cannot believe the number of people who asked me for assistance. I charged my phone three times a day, I was using the Google Maps and subway app so much.
Most of all, the personal and professional encounters during my stay were phenomenal. Despite my otherwise near hysterical insistence on anonymity, I don’t regret meeting up with fellow bloggers. To the contrary, they were highlights of my visit. Friends I’d gotten to know through months or years of correspondence were gracious hosts in every sense, offering their time generously and without hesitation. I’ve never been so flattered than when a highly placed professional judged, “After speaking with you for ten minutes, I would call you a leader, not just a manager.” Another acquaintance, fast becoming a friend and mentor, then topped that compliment the following week with, “You have a writer’s voice. You have potential.” Both individuals followed up their statements with recommendations and introductions to their professional networks, suggesting they weren’t just feeding me a line. And who am I to merit that kind of attention? Nobody to them, not before that day. Certainly I understand cronyism and nepotism, I’ve seen it many times in previous employers, but I must conclude that these are true scholars of the pay it forward philosophy. Good people to learn from in so many ways.
What’s that saying? “New York: if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.” Is it true? Perhaps.
I feel like I’m slowly coming back from a foreign country, that this New York of 2009 is intricate and exhausting. The city can really wring it out of you, but I’ve met so many genuinely nice, thoughtful, interesting friends in my short time here that I have a sneaking suspicion that I’ve learned to love the complexity at least a little bit.
July 23, 2009
It’s been nearly a week and I still haven’t mustered the courage to try and figure out how much this one’s going to cost.
On the way home from the airport, a huge chunk of asphalt or rock popped up from the right lane, and smashed into the lower right corner of my car. I was fairly certain that it mostly hit the bottom of my car, but as we drove on, I could hear an ominous whistling. Upon close inspection, the object did hit the bottom of my car which is already *ahem* damaged and still unrepaired, but even worse! It’s smashed the housing for my daytime running light. The bulb is fine, but the housing is completely destroyed.
Big. Fat. Sigh.
I’m not even going to deal with this until Comic-Con is over.
(still thinking about it, though….)
July 22, 2009
Homemade dinner 🙂
Central Park: The NY Philharmonic is playing free concerts in Central Park this summer, and I had the chance to attend Friday night. We were in the furthest back corner from the orchestra, but the acoustics were excellent and you could hear the music perfectly. It was a perfect summer evening, sitting on the blanket with girlfriends, wine, cheese, bread and jam. We were looking forward to the fireworks at the end, but the cloud cover burst and we were quickly drenched in a downpour. I failed to take a picture of the perfection. Flexo was there! I didn’t see him. Er, I wouldn’t know if I saw him, actually.
Pravda: Described as an underground Russian bar, I had the dubious pleasure of enjoying the strongest vodka martini of my life. At $14, I had more than my money’s worth well before I reached the halfway point, and was forced to order Speck with bread and cheese to stave off the embarrassment of passing out. Without a doubt, my single martini was stronger than the Limontini, White Russian and French Martinis ordered ‘round the table, combined. Naturally, I shared. Ambience: excellent. Memorable moment: while waiting in line for the two unisex washrooms, a dude in a striped shirt, texting, graciously waved us girls in ahead of him. Friend later speculated that that’s a decent potential conversation starter as it clearly generated good will. Confusion first, but good will that lasted.
East Village: On a mission to pick up goodies for the park excursion, I decided to hike south through the East Village and Lower East Side. Along the way, I discovered Pommes Frites, and a string of tiny little parks.
Bleeker/Carmine/6th Ave: Joe’s Famous Pizza. It only took two weeks, but I finally made it over there for a slice. Delicious. I have to hope that I’ve not been ruined for pizza elsewhere because I never believed that NY pizza was the epitome of pizzas…. Except it’s really really good. I love the really thin, light and chewy crusts. Surprisingly, I never went to town on an entire pie by myself. Really should have given that a go.
Rice to Riches: The rice pudding place that NY friend always takes newcomers to, and I tag along only so that I can collect their flying saucer like containers. I am that girl. Only worse, because who goes to shops where they won’t eat the food but want the containers? Weeeiird.
Friends: Two friends are entrepreneurs, and I materially benefited from our relationship: I tried on pretty clothing, none of which I took home, and I got to try on a pretty necklace that I did get to take home. Sparkly …..
Missed Opportunities: There’s an Edible Gardens thing going on in the Bronx, and I managed to miss it all. Also, I really wanted to go salsa dancing at one of those places that have a free lesson before they play the real stuff. If I’d paid an extra $356, I could have upgraded to First class and gotten my own personal media player. Totally worth it if I got to keep it, and it also transformed into a Netbook. And an EasyBake Oven.
