December 2005 Archives
Haven't done one of these in a while...
Subway has shut down
It's cold -- grab your hat and gloves
Time to walk to work.
Hi, everyone! I'm here at work. My "commute" was...uh...totally fine.
I stayed with a friend up on 96th street and West End Avenue, as I knew it was going to be hell on wheels to try and get in from Astoria. While there are carpools set up at Astoria Park, I wasn't sure how well they'd be running -- or how I'd get home. It's much easier to stay in Manhattan -- at least I don't have a bridge/tunnel to get across.
A few of our coworkers are also on the Upper West Side, so we all made arrangements to (somehow) come in together. Well -- turns out one of our coworker's neighbors was in the elevator with her and announced, "Hey, anyone need a ride downtown?" "Uh, can you take four?" So we got a ride straight down West End to 8th ave. and 28th street -- just a short crosstown walk from work. West End was deserted, too, so we had NO traffic whatsoever. My coworkers got in on time (not that anyone's counting) and I actually got in early. EARLY. On a STRIKE DAY. How can you beat that?! :)
Another person told us to leave without him, as he was running late -- HE even got a ride from a total stranger who'd just dropped off his wife and child. Clearly Upper West is the place to be, and everyone's being nice. :)
I got really excited this morning when I saw 96th and Broadway (just one block over from us) on TV. I came *yay* close to heading over with a "Hi, Mom!" sign. I decided, instead, to show some decorum. (Oh, and I was running late. Um. Yeah.)
Mind, how the hell I'm getting HOME, I've no idea. I'm on vacation starting tomorrow, so I was planning to stay late tonight...that may not be so good, though, especially if I have to walk 60 blocks. :( Glad I wore jeans and sneakers today.
How I feel about the strike: I was actually defending the union until last night, when they rejected the final offer. That offer seemed to me to be reasonable, and did make some of the concessions the union had asked for. I'm quite sympathetic about the raise issue, less so about the retirement age. I won't get to retire at 55, hardly anyone can in this day and age, so asking new hires to put more into a pension plan seems right to me... So while I don't hate the union, I am less sympathetic. I think it should have gone to arbitration.
This strike is going to hurt the union and its workers -- but it's also hurting people who can't work from home, who must be at work and on an hourly salary. Someone at Macy's or Bloomingdale's -- a cashier who needs their day's pay, and was probably counting on holiday overtime. How will they manage? That's the unfair part.
Take note of this handy flowchart!
So here's me the other morning: trying frantically to make it out the door to work. I needed to pack for a few days (potential transit strike, ya know), lighten my hair, and decide what to wear for my office party that night. And all of that would take...five minutes, right? Um. No.
So I have the lightener on my hair ("Summer Blonde," if you're interested) and it's at the point where I need to shampoo it off. And I need to do it at an exact moment, else I'd have blonde roots. :o So I hop in the shower, and there's a silverfish sitting there, obviously stuck in my tub.
Now, I generally don't kill bugs (sorry Jessica and Jamie) unless they're cockroaches, ants, mosquitos, or earwigs. In other words: I don't kill 'em unless they'll eat me or my food. :) So I grabbed a piece of toilet paper, and chased the poor silverfish around my tub, freaking out about getting it out while getting the blonding crap off my head. Finally got it out and on the floor next to the tub. Grabbed my facecloth and put it on the side of the tub to keep the blonding stuff out of my eyes.
Aaaand in the midst of everything, the facecloth falls...onto the silverfish. I'm now cursing at, well, everything. I go to pick the facecloth up...except the silverfish is now sitting on it. And, no, I'm not using a cloth ON MY FACE that's had a BUG on it. So I put it back down on the floor, rinsed my head, and prayed that nothing would get in my eyes. And then spent the rest of my bathroom time hoping I wasn't stepping on the frickin' buggie.
I hope that silverfish appreciated it!
I saw Depeche Mode play Madison Square Garden tonight -- I just got home. Amazing show. Ah-MAZ-ing. Fucking brilliant. I've seen them twice before -- 1990 and 1994 -- and it's good to see them out and playing, Dave still shaking his butt and everything. (Good to know the guy's still alive, period, and apparantly quite well, and if you know their history, you'll get that.)
So: they played "Enjoy the Silence," and, naturally, everyone was singing along. And Sharon -- and all the ASJ ladies -- I totally thought of you, as I made QUITE sure to sing "soldiers burping" at the appropriate place, at the top of my frickin' lungs.
Mwah!
Pink Martini's new album has the best "hang in there" song ever. :) It totally reminds me of a 30s/40s song, especially since they've got a long instrumental at the beginning, and then the vocals kick in toward the end.
