Posts (page 2)
I have gotten the most impossible of sunburns. After spending the day driving up and down freeways from LA to Malibu, Dan and I finally parked the car and hiked (literally) down a slight cliff to camp out on the beach. I was wearing sunscreen, but I am also almost finished with Special Topics in Calamity Physics so I wasn't really concentrating on my application technique. After a brief swim in the waves, I laid down on the sand and continued my journey to the end of this book. After arriving back at Dan's and rinsing off the accumulated day's worth of sand, imagine my surprise to see none other than the face of Optimus Prime staring at me from my leg. No lie, the sunburn line on the top of my leg has taken the shape of everyone's favorite transforming robot. I have taken a photograph and will post it once I'm back East. My theory is that there is some type of decal on the window of Dan's convertible that has caused this strange development. I think I'm going to attempt to push the cube into it's chest.
I am on VACATION and it is sweet. Although Harith and I don't officially leave for vacation until tomorrow evening I'm already taking being on vacation to the extreme. I went and had my hair did this morning (cut and colored) and then went shopping. I got a freaking cute black and white checked suitcase for travels and a new purse. I'm so excited about all of these things.
Even more than these things, I'm excited to get out of Albany for almost a week. Tomorrow evening Harith and I are driving to Cape Cod to spend a few days with my parents and then I'm flying from Boston to LA on Saturday. The reason I'm going to LA is not a fun one, but I'm still hoping the trip will be good. I haven't been to the Left Coast in almost 5 years and am glad to be making my return. Then I fly back overnight on Monday and arrive on Tuesday at noon. It will be so nice to escape the drudgery of summertime work and when I return, Steph will be a resident of my neighborhood. With all the recent exits, I'm wicked excited about this entry. Hooray!
How many jobs have you had in the past five years? Where and what did you do?
Submitted by M.
I know it's kind of a cop out returning to vox with a question of the day post, but I can't really resist this one. I've had so many jobs in the past five years I don't know if I'll even be able to remember them all. Last year alone I had 14 end of the year tax forms to enter into turbo tax. Unbelievable. Let's start at the beginning...
Five years ago was 2002, a good year marked by the beginning of courtship between Harith and I, but where was I working? That summer, I moved back in with Mom and Dad in Charlton after quitting my job as a bank teller at KeyBank. In August, I began making the relatively short drive up to the Saratoga Race Track to work as a Mutuel Clerk. My parents though that this was a very bad career move on my part. I know they were wrong as soon as I started raking in tips and saving a ton more money than I ever could have counting cash at a bank. Who needs health insurance??
After those six weeks were up, I walked into Uncommon Grounds and told the manager that I needed a job. Being a frequent customer of the establishment, no application or background check were needed. John hired me on the spot and I began slinging coffee behind the counter with the likes of miss Katie Himmelfarb and Spring Hofeldt the very next day. However, not even Katie and Spring could save me from the drama of Uncommon and in January I hung up my apron and headed west on the train with Corrie.
I don't think years of warning could have prepared Amtrak for a cross country jaunt with the giggle twins. It was awesome. Arriving in San Francisco with little money and no job prospects, I needed to start working. Luckily our roommates all worked at the Virgin Megastore and I used my bookstore savvy to land a job in their book department in only a week. Although my coworkers were fantastic and way, way hipper than I am, the job at Virgin is still the most boring job I've ever had. I spent hours rearranging the Manga section and other such mundane tasks because Virgin didn't actually sell very many books. I quit by moving back to NY and not telling them.
Once back East, I thought I would try my hand at the financial world again. I got a job as the trainer for all new employees with a local Credit Union. I had health insurance again and regular hours. But god, when your an artist, working for a financial institution is like torture. I stayed there for 4 months and then got the eff out.
I enrolled at Saint Rose full time and got a part time gig at Color Me Mine. I loved working there. Teaching people how to paint ceramics while hanging out with awesome coworkers was a great way to earn money while in school. There I stayed for over two years. until the Fall of 2005 when I began trying my hand at being a teacher.
Student teaching was a breeze, but they weren't paying me so I can't really count that as a job. After graduating, I began subbing for every school in the Capital District. From Schenectady, to Niskayuna, to Duanesburg, I fearlessly tried them all. By May, I was beaten down both physically and mentally. I wanted to be an art teacher, not a babysitter. Hell, I would have made more money as an actual babysitter.
With the end of the school year approaching and no career as an art teacher in view, I took a temp job with Measured Progress scoring standardized tests. Here's how it works: They train you on how to score one question, you take a test to make sure you know what you're doing, if you pass you score the question until it's finished. Not so bad, eh? Until you consider that sometimes there are 52,000 of the same short answer question to grade. Believe me, after 5 eight hour shifts in a row reading the answer that some undereducated 9th grader has written about physics, you might want to kill yourself. So back to the Track I went.
Just to make sure you're with me that was seven jobs in 4 years and at this point in my story it's August of 2006. The second summer I worked at the track. It's such a fun job and last year I sat between the two best people all season. It was great. Unfortunately the drive is murder and the season is only six weeks. So after a month of job hunting and being depressed in September, I was forced to take a job at an insurance company.
This job was not boring, but was definitely the worst job I've had along the way. I was answering the customer service line for an insurance company that deals with people that have mental health and substance abuse problems. This did not help my depression situation whatsoever. The only positive thing that came out of working there is that I became instant friends with Christina. If I didn't have an ally there I definitely wouldn't have even made it the 5 months that I did. Luckily, Christina and I were able to quit within a week of each other.
I left to go back to subbing, but this time only for the Guilderland School District. I liked the district so much that I decided to take a job as an aid in the Special Ed Department at their Middle School and that is where I will be returning in the Fall. However, along the way I also managed to pick up a part time job, courtesy of Joe Burke, at the Albany Public Library. I'm a clerk there some nights and hope to pass the Civil Service Exam soon so I can work there more often. I plan to return to school Full-time this winter to get my Master's in Information Science and hopefully get a job as a Librarian.
So count 'em folks, that's 12 jobs in last 5 years. Wow, no wonder I'm so tired all the time.
My recent absence from Vox can be summed up in two words:
Harry Potter. I am late to jump on this craze and am madly trying to finish book 6 before Friday. Seeing as though I work at the library, I know it will be very, very difficult not to find out how book 7 ends before too long so reading it asap is a must. Some side effects of reading nothing but Harry Potter for the last few months:
1. Incessantly calling harith "Harith Potter."
2. Constantly being frustrated that I can't get myself out of tight jams by using summoning charms or Defense Against the Dark Arts.
3. Being obsessed, to the point of distraction, that the seventh book has been upstairs in cataloging at the library since Tuesday.
4. Finding myself discussing "major" points that the 5th movie totally neglected and getting really heated about it.
5. Really wanting to get a fifth cat and name it "Crookshanks."
I'll let you know about my progress with finishing the books and also about the (Totally awesome) party I will be attending at the library on Friday night. But, I won't spoil the end of book 7...if I ever get there.
The Rev Records now has official t-shirts. I've had the past three days off and have finally gotten the chance to screen print the shirts that Harith purchased for this purpose months ago. I must admit, my prowess with screen printing, a medium I have very little experience with, is getting much better. We are lucky enough to have the space in our basement to set up a small workspace and area to dry things.
I screened black logos on the white and gray shirts and white logos on the red, blue, and orange shirts. I think they look pretty snazzy. They will be available to purchase for $10 at all upcoming Rev Records events and maybe someday on the web site, if it ever exists.
Although I complained to Harith about all the manual labor, I have to admit, hanging out in the basement when it's over 90 degrees outside is pretty sweet. However, ironing all of the shirts to set the design was possibly the sweatiest thing I've ever been involved with. Here's some more pics of the work/end product.
Yesterday evening in Albany we had what seemed to be the worst storm in history. The rain was crazy. The wind was insane. The thunder was like nothing I've ever heard. After the storm subsided, I looked out the front door only to see that a very large portion of the tree in front of our house had fallen down. Now, there is much debate between the four residents of The Pinnacle as to what part of the storm took the tree down (I think lightening) but nonetheless, it was pretty impressive.
In a very strange turn of events, there were two empty parking spaces on the street where the tree fell. If you're at all familiar with Center Square, you know that this is not common. In fact, even though I have a parking spot behind the house, I almost parked my car there because the spot was so good. It's a good thing I didn't. When Harith and I returned from dinner a few hours later, someone had actually moved the tree out of the parking spots onto the sidewalk and parked there. It was hilarious. Here are some photos of the tree, the daylight photos were taken before and the night photos were taken after it had been moved.
What clothing item do you wish could be banned?
Submitted by Mike E.
These are a few of my biggest offenders. Most egregiously worn together.
After much ado and nearly three years of griping from Harith, I have finally started taking guitar lessons. My esteemed teacher is none other than DJ Michael Campion and after our first lesson yesterday, I think he will make me a star.
As many of you know, Harith and lots of our friends chipped in to purchase my beautiful, red electric guitar. Since it's purchase (for our second anniversary) it has been moved several times and played by visitors to the Pinnacle, most notably Bessam Sam and Joe Burke. In my defense, I did make one attempt to teach myself how to play from Guitar For Dummies. However, after I struggled to learn how to play Auld Lang Syne to impress my drunken friends at midnight on New Year's Eve only to have it all but completely ignored, I returned Little Susie to her case and have not made any real attempt to play her since.
Fast forward to yesterday, Tuesday July 3rd, 2007. My first official guitar lesson. It was glorious. I started by doing picking exercises to get my right hand working. Quarter and then eighth notes. It really is a lot tougher picking both up and down than one would imagine. Next we did some finger stretching exercises to help me reach the strings with my left hand. This proved much trickier. If you know DJ Michael, then you realize that he and I do not have hands that are even near the same size. He was doing difficult positions on the neck of the guitar with ease, while I was struggling to even get my fingers to reach the 6 string. Being the awesome teacher that he is, Michael taught me some simple ways to correct my posture and soon I could reach the strings. Finally, it was on to the big guns: The E Chord. This turned out to be the easiest thing for me to accomplish. Soon I was strumming like a pro. Michael said that I would inevitably be a star in only a few weeks. Well, maybe not those words exactly, but that was clearly his sentiment.
With the combination of Guitar Lessons and Jogging Regiment, somehow this summer has turned into "Summer of Self-Improvement." I think it's just like me to stumble onto the path of improvement instead of setting these goals myself. I think that this is the only way I have any chance of succeeding.
Walking/running.
As many of you know Harith and I have begun a regiment of jogging called the "Couch-2-5K" program. Last week was week 1. In week 1 you do a series of minute jogs followed by minute-and-a-half walks so that you slowly build up your jog-ability. By Friday this was pretty easy and I was feeling confident that jogging is definitely my new IT activity.
Fast forward to this morning, Week 2 begins. The simple switch from a series of minute-and-a-half jogs followed by minute walks was almost soul crushing. Well, maybe not soul crushing, but it was hella more difficult than week 1. But determination prevailed and Harith and I managed to finish our workout.
Did I mention that we've been getting up at 6am for these workouts and then going to our (sometimes 2) jobs all day? It's positively invigorating. Those of you planning to roll over the two of us in the Storm Front Croquet League can stop your plotting right now. We get up at SIX AM to jog.
If you're interested in the program we're doing, here's the link:
http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml
Harith made this one and I think it's fierce.
