Lifestyles of the poor and nameless

That's right kids...it's time for another round of "Survivor". For those who are just tuning in, I've done 3 rounds of "Survivor", in which I "eliminate" friends/co-workers/family members or just random people whom I'd rather not deal with (check the archives). For this 4th round, I return to the work-place.This round's elimination belongs to "Janet".

Janet is a nice, older (about 50s/60s) woman who works at my job. She is one of 3 Black people who work on my side of the hall. Because there are so few of us, I feel that I must maintain good communication. Janet is also very sickly. She has been hospitalized several times for respiratory problems. The problem is that she smokes like a chimney. If we were allowed to smoke in the building, I'm sure her ashtray would be overflowing. In any case, her smoking isn't really any of my business...except for the fact that she is a "close talker". You know, those people who stand less than an arm's length away from you when they talk to you....invading your personal space.

So every morning, she passes my desk on her way to the A.C's office. She says hi and I say hi back. Then she comes to my desk and starts talking about some random thing. No matter how busy I try to appear, she will stand there for at least 5 minutes, cigarette smoke literally spewing from her pores. She might as well be smoking a cigarette in my cube. (No, I'm not exaggerating). Even after she leaves, the vicinity smells smoky. I have no clue how much she smokes each day, but for a woman with severe respiratory issues, any smoking is too much.

She recently told me that her best friend (whom she is unable to locate for some reason) has the same name as I do. She thinks that's a sign, and we are destined to be good friends. She's a nice lady, really...but if she keeps talking to meI may fall out from smoke inhalation. I have resorted to hiding in the adjoining empty cubicle when I hear her coming down the hall. *Sigh*. Sorry Janet, but you've gotta leave the island.

I was pretty excited about working out at my new gym--- my first trip back to a gym in almost 6 months. Although I had checked out the facilities before signing up, and noticed the absence of Precor and LifeFitness brand equipment, I was still convinced that it wouldn't be that bad.

However, my heart sank when I got to the elliptical machine. I really think it was among the first elliptical machines ever made. There are only 2 buttons on it: a red one to set the time and a black one to reset the time. There is a knob to adjust the tension level. Yes, I said a knob. As in, manual or "not digital". Better yet, when I got on the machine, I realized that the right foot pad drags against the track and makes a pretty ugly noise with every revolution. *Sigh*

And, lets not leave out the treadmills....I didn't realize that there was a time when treadmills did not have incline capability. Apparently, that was about 18 years ago when the gym first purchased the equipment. Do you really want to hear about the old school Nautilus equipment in the weight room? You know how weight machines usually have the name of the machine, a picture of the muscle group(s) being worked, and some instructions on how to do the exercises? Nope. Not here. I think this is the stuff they used to train Sylvester Stallone when he was doing the first Rocky movie.

The only thing I could think of during the workout is "I have 14 days to cancel with no penalty. I gotta get to a Bally's or something." But realistically, the closest Bally's or equivalent is about 30 minutes away. I don't know about you, but I know that if I have to travel that far to get to a gym, I'll find alot of reasons to skip the workout. So I'm stuck, but trying to make the best of it. I don't plan to be in this area forever, and I figure that it's just a new kind of challenge. I won't leave until I'm absolutely dripping sweat or ready to collapse from exhaustion....and to be on the safe side, I will do a little workout at home. Summer's coming!

Here's 3 questions for Thursday:

1. Name one food and/or random thing that you like, but most people
think is wierd/gross/yucky.

2.What are you doing for the Easter holiday?

3. What music is in your CD player/iPod/boom box (lol) right now?

Here are my answers:

1. I may regret admitting this, but...I like prunes. *gasp* Should I
give you a minute to recover? I know that most people think prunes are
disgusting or just for old people, but I think they're sweet and I
happen to like them. So there!

2. I am going back to NYC this weekend and I will probably be going to
church on Friday and Saturday. I am having a real crisis of religion
these days, so it's going to be a struggle, but I'll do my best.
Depending on how I feel, I might just watch "The Ten Commandments". I
think I watch it (or attempt to watch it) every year, but I don't think
I've ever stayed awake until the very end. I usually fall asleep when
Moses is at the burning bush.

3. My musical device of choice for the moment is the Sony MD
player...until the Creative Zen Micro AM/FM MP3 player gets cheaper.
Since I'm back at the gym, I've got alot of soca/hip-hop/angry
alternative music on my disc. Or else I've got music from women whose
bodies I aspire to (does that make sense?) Example...I'm normally not a
J.Lo music fan, but I have her song "I'm Glad". Did you see the video
for that?! I hope I can get into half the shape she's in. Then there's
the usual suspects: Green Day, 3rd eye blind, Alanis Morissette and
Avril Lavigne are a must-have for cardio.

I've come to enjoy the look of surprise that crosses peoples' faces
when I meet them for the first time after speaking to them on the phone
for a while. Case in point: I called the local gym to find out about
memberships, and made an appointment to tour the facilities. I spoke to
a woman named Fran, about 4 times. When I showed up at the gym
yesterday for my appointment, Fran clearly wasn't expecting a Black
female. Lol. I loved watching her pick her jaw up off the floor. I
purposely put on my "white voice" when I'm making these kinds of calls.
My "white voice" has no accent at all (i.e. no Brooklyn/Caribbean/Black
intonations). That's right Fran, forget your preconceived notions for a
minute and look at the person before you.

A similar situation happened when she introduced me to Matt. Matt had a
hard time believing that I'm from NY because he couldn't detect an
accent.

At the end of the day, I joined the local gym :-). Although the
facilities are lacking by comparison to what I'm used to, I guess this
is the best I can get in this neighborhood...and it's only $33/month. I
miss my Precor elliptical machines and LifeFitness treadmills. Sigh.
There's no spinning class either :-\. BUT, there is a cardio kickbox
class and a hip-hop/reggae dance class. I'm curious to know who's going
to be teaching that in THIS neighborhood. lol. Personal training is
included, so that's a plus. Now let's see how often I go.

I used to watch movies and wonder why single females are always hanging
out somewhere, or inviting strangers into their homes. After one night
in the 1BR, I now understand.

Yes, there's a certain level of liberation to being in your own place.
It's great not to hear your parents squawking at you about what you
could/should be doing and how you need to clean your room, etc. I
haven't had this kind of autonomy since my single dorm room in my last
semester of undergrad. I had forgotten how nice it can be. But, back
then I lived in a hallway with about 20 other undergrads, so it was
never quiet/boring/lonely.

Now, in my newfound space, I find myself eager to have company or go
somewhere. Thank God for cable. lol. I think I will end up spending
lots of time at the gym once I get my membership. In the meantime, I
have lots of movies and maybe even the Bible to keep me company.

On Friday I went to Philly to get some things for my apartment (I was
looking for furniture). I looked up the directions on MapQuest.com and
then I took off into the sunshine. Mapquest said it was a 35 minute
drive. I (skillfully) did it in 25.

It was beautiful. Philly reminds me of Manhattan, but old school. I was
in the "Center City" section (Chestnut/Walnut St for those who know)
and I parked the car and walked around. Maybe next time I'll take some
pics with my phone. In the meantime, I'll just say that the buildings
are very decorative. Rite Aid looks like it could be a small church or
museum. Then there's the art museum. I'm used to NYC museums which are
just these mammoth buildings, but not particularly ornate or
historic-looking. The Philadelphia Art museum was a work of art itself,
and there is a statute of Ben Franklin at the very top, which I didn't
even notice the first time I passed it.

I passed the area of the famous "LOVE park", but I didn't have a chance
to see it. LOVE park is the place where big, red, sculpted block
letters which spell the word "LOVE" are stacked 2 x 2. It looks
interesting in pictures. I could definitely see myself hanging out
there (they have Starbucks! I haven't seen a Starbucks out here in
quite some time...there's only Dunkin' Donuts. I'm not a coffee freak,
but I love Starbucks' apple cider).

So I'm finally moved in (for the most part). I don't have a couch and I
still don't know where I want to position my TV, but for the time
being, all is functional and that's a step in the right direction.
I was relatively excited yesterday because I got my cable TV set up.
The cable guy was really nice and he helped me move the TV from the
kitchen to the living room. Thank God 'cause I couldn't lift it alone
and I'm pretty sure I would have dropped it. He installed the dish on
the roof and all was well. Until this morning.

I got a call from the property manager saying that I had to have the
dish moved because the neighbors complained about it. Apparently,
although the dish was installed on my house, it encroaches on the
neighbors' property line and they want it off ASAP. Now, the thing that
annoys me about this is: the neighbors saw the guy installing it
yesterday. At any point, they could have said something to him, or to
me, about moving it. The installation was complete by 3:00pm yesterday
and I was home almost all evening. They had all night, or even this
morning to knock on my door and say "hey, could you move that?"
Instead, they go and call the property manager about it, like it's some
egregious activity. What the hell is that?! "Welcome to the
neighborhood", huh?

Just for the fun of it, I think I will knock on their door and
introduce myself....then I'll inform them that I don't bite, so if
there's a problem, they can speak to me about it. The last thing I need
is to be considered a "problem tenant".

Did you watch the series "Friends"? Did you ever see the episodes where
Phoebe sings her song called "Smelly Cat"? I now know what inspired the
song.

In case you haven't had first-hand experience with cat piss, let me
tell you: it reeks. I'm surprised that it doesn't burn holes in carpet
upon contact. The tenants before last owned a cat (in violation of the
lease, I might add). I had heard about it when I went to view the
apartment, but for the life of me, I really didn't smell anything.
However, When I was moving into the apartment the stench was
overpowering. The property manager explained to me that the place had
been closed up for some time and then they opened the windows so the
air started circulating in the place. Once that happened, the cat piss
wafted throughout the apartment.

And they expected me to just move into it without a problem! Oh no. I
had the carpets steam-cleaned this weekend before I moved my stuff in.
The carpet guy said that the best thing to do is to replace the carpets
because you can't really get rid of cat piss in carpets. But the
management company isn't going to change the carpets :-\. The steam
cleaning helped alot but I still smell something. So I keep my windows
cracked all the time and I light big jars of scented candles in each
room. Thank God warm weather is on the way (unless that means that I'd
be smelling hot cat piss).

Ok, before I get into it....I was back in NYC this weekend and I saw a guy on the train with BEADS at the end of his cornrows...like Serena and Venus used to wear back in the day. Yes, I said a GUY was sporting that. Clear and brown beads with the little silver tinfoil tips. WHAT is that all about? Men, I love ya'll....but please don't do it to yourselves! Leave that to Stevie and the late Rick James.

Moving on (no pun intended ;-)) I picked up my key today :-D. The property manager walked me through the place and we did a quick walk-through to make sure everything was in order. When we got to the fridge, he said "you know, when the last tenants left, they turned off the fridge and closed the doors. Since the place was empty, nobody realized it. When I came back here, I opened the fridge and it was horrible. There was mildew in there. So I called a cleaning lady and she came and cleaned up the fridge and the rest of the apartment. Look. She did a good job." *He smiled and showed the inside of the fridge*

On quick inspection, it seemed like all was well. There was no smell coming from the fridge, and the silver parts were silver. It wasn't until later that I saw just how disgusting it really was. I spent about an hour and a half washing the fridge and its parts; I didn't even get to the freezer yet. All I could think as I cleaned was "I can't believe the cleaning lady thought this was clean!" Tomorrow I go back for round 2. Joy.

Yep, I'm back; but only for a moment. The past couple weeks have been pretty hectic. First there was the apartment search...and then I found one, so I've been packing, shopping, cleaning, and otherwise preparing for the move. Plus I'm trying to find out about my new 'hood...so my limited internet access is usually spent doing some kind of neighborhood research. Can you believe it takes 3 weeks to set up phone service?! And then there's another week for DSL. *Sigh*

It appears as though Diane, in true bi-polar fashion, has returned to her crabby ways. *Sigh* I guess it was too good to be true. And now that she's starting to pack for the move, I think she's realized that she has some valuable stuff to sell. So, the formerly free Queen sized bed is now for sale: $400 for the bed, the end tables, lamps and the dresser with mirror. Hmmm. Methinks I'll pass. I don't plan to be at this apartment permanently anyway. I figure I'll get by on cheap furniture for now and save up for a brand new, real set later....like when I'm ready to buy a house, or at least a more permanent apartment.

I finally went back to PA after being in NY for 3 weeks. I couldn't take the 6 hour roundtrip commute on those torturous benches anymore. Although I was dreading returning to Diane (see the archives), I knew it was a temporary stop until I could find my own place. I fully expected her to be her usual crabby self. So imagine my surprise when I discovered she was just as happy as can be--- laughing, joking, telling stories from her youth. Hmmm. Maybe I should have gone away sooner. In any case, Diane told me that she's planning to move to FL; hopefully by April 1 of this year. She even offered to let me rent out her house while she's away. Unfortunately, the house is too big for me and I don't know anyone else who wants to live in the area. In the alternative, she offered to give me some furniture when I move out. Awww. *Thanks Diane!*

Once upon a time, there used to be a site called "FridayFive.org" (or something like that). I was introduced to it by my friend Romeo. Unfortunately, I wasn't into blogging back then, so I missed out on it. Friday 5 used to be a website that posted 5 random questions for people to discuss amongst themselves.

Here's my bootleg attempt. I call it Friday Four.

1. Have you ever eaten anything off the floor? If so, what was it? And when did you do it? (Yes, that's still one question!)

2. Chips Ahoy or Oreo?

3. How often in the last 6 months, have you burned a meal that you were cooking? (And no, the food doesn't have to be blackened in order for it to qualify as burned)

4. What would you name your son/daughter?

OK ok. I'll go first:

1. Yes, I have eaten off the floor.... and I lived to tell the tale. And what?! Lol. I distinctly remember eating a piece of turkey off the floor in school (the classroom floor, no less) when I was in elementary school. Genius that I am, I told my parents about it and they gave me the lesson of a lifetime.

2. Chewy Chips Ahoy in the microwave with milk please :-)

3. I haven't been cooking too much in the past 6 months, so the opportunities for burning were limited. However, I did manage to blacken a bag of popcorn in the microwave at work last week.

4. Hmm...I really don't know. Nothing "ghetto-rific" like Boomshieka though. Nothing with La, Sha or Qua either.....not my style. I used to say I would name my son Amadeus. That was a long time ago though. I recently heard of a man named Wolfgang. They call him Wolf for short.
Never thought of names for daughters because I didn't want any :-O.

So....you thought Throwback Thursday was going to be back this week huh? Sorry to disappoint you, but I don't have the brain-power for it this week. Between the bar exam and the commute to work, I have no brain left.

I've been taking NJ Transit to work from (NY Penn Station to Trenton, NJ) everyday for the past week and can I just tell you....IT SUCKS! From door to door, it's a total of 6 hours roundtrip. 45 minutes to an hour on the train from my house to Penn Station and then another 90 minutes on the NJ Transit train to Trenton. Pure torture. Those NJ Transit seats are crazy. After sitting on the seat for 90 minutes straight, my arse is sore....or my spine is badly deformed because of the high backs on the seats and the way I curl myself to try to sleep on the train. They should come with some kind of warning like "CAUTION: Prolonged seating may lead to scoliosis."