The 'Hood Times

I finally got a job! I'm going to be doing layout work for a newspaper/tabloid. Its just getting started though, so we will see how it goes. They want to call it the New York Hood News. It will be devoted to stories that are about regular people, rather than celebrities and politicians. They want the first issue to come out in three weeks or so. It'll be interesting to see if it gets off the ground. I think it is interesting that I'll be working on this paper that will probably go out to mostly african-american communities in the south and east. I'm sure it'll expose me to cultural aspects that I haven't had too much experience with in the past. But it will get me real world experience that will be useful in the future, and that's probably the most important thing.

Let's See if it Works Now

This is now my third attempt at posting this image to my blog.

This is the curtain call for the showing of Wicked I went to on Wednesday. I liked it, but I should have enjoyed myself more than I did. I was worried about parking in a "no standing anytime" zone. Nothing happened to the car.

Living With Cliques

There seems to be a feud going on among the people I work with out here in NJ/NY. There is my friend Rob*, his wife Julie, his sister Heather, her boyfriend Tyler, Julie's friend Nikki, and me. Julie doesn't care for Tyler, so he and Heather do stuff on their own most of the time. Last week Nikki and I ended up going into the city with Heather and Tyler. We told Julie we were going, and that she could come. But I guess she didn't want to because of Tyler, and resented us going. Or rather she resented Nikki. Now she is ignoring Nikki for no real reason. I think I have mitigated any wrath Julie may have had toward me. I have tried not to go with one group more than the other. But I am having trouble keeping it up.

You see, I think Nikki has a thing for me, and I don't have it back. I would choose Rob and Julie, just to avoid her, but I share a room with Tyler, so that group is always over. I think that Nikki is starting to pick up that I am being a bit distant, I just hope she doesn't take it the wrong way. I have no problem being a friend, but that's all I care to be.

I thought I left this all behind a long time ago in public school. I am not yet counting down the days until I can go home like I did this summer, but it is getting close to that. At least the money is a lot better here than it was in Denver.

* - names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Too Much Popular Media?

I guess I've seen too much TV and too many movies in my years. But then again, sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Not in this case, but it had plenty of potential. We had the day off, so a group of us went into the city today. We took a ferry over from Jersey and then walked around Times Square. We ate at the Olive Garden, and I had the stuffed chicken prosciutto. Good stuff. Four of us ended up going down to Canal Street which is in lower Manhattan. This is the center of imitation merchandise in the city. There are street vendors around in all the tourist spots, but this is the mecca of cheap knock-offs.

Almost as soon as we get street level from the subway, this little chinese woman comes by and shows one of the girls a paper with a bunch purses on it, and asks, "want to see?" "Uh, sure..." And we were off. She takes us down this alley way for 2 or 3 blocks. This is starting to feel really shady, but we keep following. When she takes us into this building that she has to unlock to get into, I stay at the door, making sure it doesn't shut behind us. She stops and tries to talk us into continuing on with her. Her English is not great, which makes me nervous, big language barrier. "Come see purse, come see. No scared, come see." She was very insistent. But we go in. She takes us up 6 flights of stairs into a sweat shop. Wow! Definately not your normal tourist locale. It is night and several people are leaving for the day, so it is not super crazy in there, but there are still a few chinese ladies working on sewing projects. She takes us into a side room filled with purses. Chanel and Prada knock-offs. I stood at the door to make sure we weren't shut in or that some martial artists would take us totally by surprise. I didn't know what to expect...

When the girls decided upon a purse style, they asked for it in a different color. The lady got on her radio and then took us back to the street. This shady looking chinese man smoking a cigarette came up to us with the purse in a shopping bag. He wanted $35 for it, but they offered $30. He only went down to $34. I didn't like being in the alley so I stood apart from everyone else, so once more I could watch either end of the alley for any surprises.

Thank goodness my imagination was larger than life rather than accurate. Nothing happened, except we got ripped off and had an experience that not many people get.

(Editor's Note: The editor wishes to apologize for taking so long to post this entry. December 1, 2007)

Missed It...

...by that much.

Well, I'm not sure exactly how close the other car was, but it was pretty close. They finally had us go out and do some driving today, and I almost got in a wreck. It would have been my fault as well. We were trying to get from Staten Island to Long Island, and I saw a sign that I was wondering about when the girl in my car said, "Red...RED!" I slammed on my breaks, as did the car that had the right of way, and it was amazing that we did not collide. Miraculous even. I stopped right in front of them, and not even a tap on our fender. Oi vey!

And then we got stuck in Manhattan for an hour (Only an hour?) before extricating ourselves and getting back to Staten Island. Manhattan is definately a night drive location.

Got to see Wood, Woodine, and MaryP last night. The conditions were not ideal, but it was good to see them nonetheless.

Oh, and New Jersey does not smell that bad where we are, but down by the Goethals Bridge to Staten Island it reeks! Just nasty! It had been raining all day too and if anything it smelled worse. In other places the rain usually washes that kind of stuff away, but not in Jersey!