In just a few hours, Kat will be here and dad will be here tomorrow!! Yippee!! I can not wait!

Almost here!

I have three days to get my apartment in order before Kate and Dad get here. I have done a lot so far but I have so much to do before they get here. Like mopping the floor. It's a weird thing for me. I have only hard word floors. They are really nice but it's a strange that I don't have to get a vacuum out for the carpets. I don't have any. I bought this Orange Glow specially made for hardwood floors. I'm actually looking forward to trying it out. All I have to do is sweep first before I can really try it out. Not really looking forward to that because that's just plain boring. My mom suggested that I buy more pillows even though I told everyone to bring their own. I wish she told me this before I went to Target last week because I'm now going to have to make another trip. I kind of have to anyways because there were things I wanted to buy but forgot but they aren't really necessary. I'm not sure what I'm really stressing about. They both know me. I'm not really the cleanest person in the world but I want them to have a good impression of my little apartment. My dad has been here before when he left, it was still covered in boxes and Kate has yet to see it. Not to mention, we will have more room If I do finally get rid of the few boxes hanging around.

I do feel a little bad because I'm not taking any time off while Kate and Dad are here but I did take the weekend off when my Mom comes over my Birthday. My reasoning was it was Thanksgiving Weekend and I probably wouldn't have gotten anytime off anyway and I thought I would only be working four days that week instead of five because of the paid holiday. Well, I was wrong. Some of us who are full time got three days off this week but not me. I'm not entirely upset because I am going to get paid for six days instead of five which is going to come in handy later but I kind of feel like I'm telling my them "Come visit me but I'm not going to be here". That's kind of crappy but on the other hand. I do live in NY. It's not like they won't find things to do here to amuse themselves. Next time they come, I will make sure that I have time off to spend with them.

It's cold

My fellow coworkers and I had a little disagreement about how cold it was yesterday. It was in the mid-30's, which is cold but not that cold. Many of the native New Yorker's disagreed with me. I guess it's ok. The median temperature for the months of January and February is just around freezing temp. so they are not used to the below 0 temps that we are used to in the midwest. Lourdes and I were going back and forth about how cold it really was when Liz came in wearing just a heavy sweatshirt. Liz is also from Iowa so she backed me up on the "it's cold but it could a lot colder" statement. Lourdes thought we were both crazy. Of course Lourdes is also told me that my double breasted Gap coat that I usually only wear when I get dressed up, was not going to be warm enough. I respectfully said, thank you for the concern but I do have a heavier coat, I just didn't feel like dragging it out of the closet and it really wasn't that cold. It gets a lot colder in Iowa then here so I'll be ok. Of course, I am a little worried about having to walk in the cold. I usually just have to run in between buildings and my car so I'm not really outside all that much. Maybe all of this bravado is going to come back and haunt me.

Clean Clothes

I bought a new filter for my PUR pitcher and I really can tell a difference. I like the taste of clean water. It's nice. I finally did my laundry today. It really needed to be done. I tried earlier in the week but the change machine was out and the little grocery/deli store didn't have any quarters to spare so I couldn't do it. I lugged my basket down stairs. loaded my clothes into a machine, sat down at the table and started to read. About 5 minutes later, someone else came in. Even though there was five open machines open, I had picked the 3 best ones so she said she would wait. Like every five minutes, she would come back to see if i was done. You would think she would just look at the timer so knew how much time I had left. Then when it was time for me to dry, she had to comment on the dryers I was using. I was like, lady, I'm trying to wash my clothes and read. Thank You. I was so glad when my laundry was done and she had left so I could finish in peace. I don't think I am unfriendly but I don't need running commentary on what I am supposedly doing wrong or the fact that I had taken the best machines. I got there first, sorry. I didn't realize they were the best, they are just the closest ones to the dryer. That's why I picked them. Have I ever mentioned I hate to do laundry. This is just one of the many reasons why.

This is really a post, just to have a post. I did go to Target and Pathmark today to get supplies for next week, includiing a turkey. It was quite interesting going on the subway with a frozen turkey, soda and a mop and yet I was still the least interesting person on the train. I briefly thought about taking a taxi home because I did have a lot of bags but they wanted $20! That is a lot of money to go roughly 3 miles. Maybe it's more then that but really Atlantic is only 1 stop on the express train from my station and five stops on the local so really couldn't be that far away. So, I sucked it up and took the train home and walked up the street. It really wasn't that bad. It just would have been a whole lot easier if I had taken the taxi and with the new propose fare hikes for the subway and buses maybe it will be cheaper to take a taxi. Jeez.

speed walking

I really don't think I am a slow walker but compared to New Yorkers I am. They are all speed walkers. I sometimes feel like I have to run to keep up with them. I think it has to be that they grew up walking everywhere and not being driven. It also might have to do with the fact that New Yorker's don't mess around. They have places to go and people to see so they don't dawdler or mosey they just go. So, this is New York walk I am going to have to master if I truly want to fit in.

I have the next two days off. I'm pretty excited about it. It's been a while since I had two days off in a row. I wish I could spend them relaxing but I have a lot of things to do. I have to run to Target to pick up a few things I need for next week. I'm going to need more plates because right now, I have only three and I am going to have at least 3 guests for Thanksgiving so that doesn't really work. I also need to buy a turkey. So not looking forward to get on the subway with a frozen turkey but I fear it is unavoidable. I have to do grocery shopping majorly because I am basically down to only cereal. I have to do laundry because the last time I tried the change machine was out of order and well, that's just not right. And finally, I have to start cleaning up my apartment, which means finishing unpacking the five boxes that I have still haven't unpacked. They are mostly little things that I obviously don't use on a daily basis but It will be nice to finally get rid of all the boxes. So, it will be a busy two days.

Goodbyes

So, I'm watching the replay of the TRL finale and it is kind of making me sad. I loved this show. I remember coming home from high school and putting it on. I remember watching the madness of Time Square and having a little crush on Carson Daly. It really wasn't the same after he left. It was just a great show. Where else could you watch 'NSYNC, Limp Bizkit, Snoop Dogg and Korn in the same show? No where. So, Goodbye TRL. You had a good run and you will be missed.

Last night after my marathon shifts at work, I went out to a Goodbye party for my fellow coworker, Brian. Brian was one of the cafe leads but unfortunately that didn't pay the rent so he is moving back home to upstate New York. I really like Brian. I thought he was a really good guy and liked chatting with him when I was counting the cafe drawer or letting him into the cash room to get his Godiva for the cafe. It's a shame this city is so expensive. I mean, other then that it's a really great city. His predicament did get me to think about how I am doing financially. For the short term, I'm doing ok. I'm not going to go hungry ok. It's a good thing that I have worked for B&N for so long because I my salary is high enough that I can cover rent and my bills but barely. If I made anything less then I do now I would be in trouble. I do know that in the long term, what I'm doing now is going to cut it. I'm going to have to start looking for something that pays better but for now I'm not going to worry about it. I think at this point I'm going to wait for the new year to hit the pavement. I don't know if that is a good or bad idea but I just can't imagine of dealing the stress of job hunting and the holidays.

ick

It's going to be a rough 24 hours. I am about to leave to go work. I am closing tonight and opening tomorrow. Meaning I will be at the store until midnight, it'll probably take me about 30 mins, give or take, to get home, go to bed, get up and go right back to work at 8am. That sucks. I thought clopening was illegal but I guess not. Well, that's not true. My friend Jessy closes every Friday and opens every Saturday but she has to because it is the only way it works in her schedule. I do not have that conflict but I'm just going to deal with it. What else can I do? But if you see me Sunday around 4pm. Watch out because I'm sure I'll be cranky.

I just walked up and down three flights of stairs carrying about three weeks worth of laundry to only find out that the machine was out of order and the little shop across the street didn't have any quarters to spare. So, I walked back up those three flights of stairs with my still dirty laundry. Man, that really sucks. I really hate doing laundry so while part of me is ok with this but the other part of me just wants it to be done with so i can forget about for a couple of weeks. ugh.

Grey's Anatomy

Grey's Anatomy is one of my favorite shows. My friend Sarah and I have watched it from the beginning or at least I have. I think she was just in the room. Well, it has become a tradition that we watch it together. We have kept it up more or less the last couple of years even though she has moved to Michigan and me in New York but lately it's been hard to get together. She either has to work or I do. Tonight was the first time in a week that we were actually able to get together to watch our love challenged doctors. What I like about the show is the mix of comedy and drama. It really is a soap opera but a really good soap opera but I think what I really love about it is that it has become special SarahBeth time. Even though we have moved away and see each other only once a year, at least once a week we still get to hang out and watch TV like we used to do when we were roommates. So is it the show that I really love or is it just that I get to hang out with Sarah? That's a good question

One or the other.

The store that I work in is two floors. It has an elevator and escalator. Today they were both broken. How does that happen? The escalator is broken off and on since I have worked there so that wasn't really surprised. At least this time it was the down that wasn't working. Usually it's the up and that is killer to walk up. Well, since the escalator dudes had the down completely blocked off and we couldn't walk down it, the up was turned off so it could be up and down. Annoying. Well, when I got to work and say the escalator in pieces I was all set to take the elevator, even though I am a tad bit claustrophobic and really don't like that elevator and I'm always afraid of getting stuck in it. Surprise it's not working either. And even bigger surprise! Two of my coworkers, did get stuck in it yesterday. I knew I had reasons to fear it. So all day long I got "I can't believe both the escalator and elevator are not working". Tell me about. You only have to be for a few minutes, I have to be here all day. I can only hope one of them is fixed by tomorrow but since the escalator was still in pieces when I left and no one has come yet about the elevator I'm not optimistic.

In other news, they were filming "Flights of the Conchord" on 5th Ave, Brooklyn today. I actually have never seen a full episode of the show but it is pretty exciting to see something get filmed. I was on the bus so I didn't get see much, only what was in passing but I recognized one of the guys from the show. So, that is the second film location I have witness since moving here. Cool, huh?

Happy Veteran's Day

So, today is Veteran's day. I didn't really realize that until I was walking towards 5th Ave and was stopped by police and barricades. I caught the tale end of the Veteran's day parade. My first New York parade. woohoo! The sidewalk wasn't all the crowded but it didn't make walking down 5th Ave any easier so I decided that I to watch a little bit. I was struck about how young all the parade participates were. Age has kind of become a touchy subject to me lately but watching these 18-19 years walk down 5th Ave in their Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine uniforms made me want to cry. How long before these kids are shipped over seas to Iraq or Afghanistan? Will we get out of these places before they are deployed? I know that the military is something that I could never do so I am so happy that there are people who are willing to volunteer for service. I can only hope that in the near future that we won't have to send our kids overseas to fight wars we shouldn't be involved in. That we will live in peace. Wow! That sounds corny. But I do hope that those kids walking down 5th Ave. and all over the US will not have to see conflict. My hopes and prayers are with all our troops.

My day

I had plan about what I wanted to write tonight but now that I'm sitting down I can't remember what that plan was. I'm sure whatever it was was both deep and profound and would have blown your mind. Ok, that is most unlikely but I'm sure it was better then this.

So, anyway, today was kind of crazy. I opened, which for me, is usually a bad start of the day. It's actually not a bad shift. I do get to leave at 4 and have the entire evening to do whatever I want but I mostly come home and take a nap. So really, I don't have an entire evening to do whatever I want. When I got to work, there were gentlemen there scooping out the place. They were installing more security cameras. So that was interesting. I was in the cash room when they asked if they could come in and take a look. There is a panel in the cash room that leads them inside the wall so they can do whatever they need to do hook up all the wires and stuff. It was kind fun and creepy when the guy, who was then in the wall, yelling at his partner who was in the other room. It was like this disembodied voice coming from the walls. So that made the mundane task of preparing the deposit more interesting. Then our CRM who does the institutional accounts had two classes come in. There is a fund that takes classes around Brooklyn and maybe even New York to Barnes and Noble and lets each kid pick up to $50 worth of books. cool, right. Well the first class went off without a hitch. The second class didn't. They took forever, the kids were kind of divas and left our kids department a mess. My friend Lourdes called out so I had to wait to take my lunch until the class was finished. So, I was cranky and dealing with kids. Two things that do go together with me. After I came back from break, we got in 4 boxes of CD's and DVD's. We actually don't have a Music department. Just a few spinners we put DVD's on and our back stock is already full. Where are we going to put all these new DVD's. Especially since most of them are Christmas DVD's. Where are they going to go? Or what do we take off to put them out? It was at this point that I stickered most of the strict on sales for tomorrow when my shift ended and I passed off the chore to Kathleen. Sorry Kathleen. It was a rather unusual day. I'm pretty stoked that tomorrow I have off. I think I might go to Macy's and take advantage of their Veteran's Day sale. .

More then Meet the Eyes

The problem with blogging everyday is that you have to have something to say everyday. I'm not sure what I want to write about. So, I guess I'll tell you what I'm doing. Right now I am eating pizza and watching Transformers. Yes, I do love this movie and I don't care what anyone says about it. As a kid, I watched the cartoon and played with the toys. I just think it's a fun movie. It's not going to change the world or anything but just plain cheese with a few explosions mixed in. Ok, a lot of explosions. It is Michael Bay after all. Plus it does have Shia Labeouf, who I think is adorable. I've liked him since his Even Stevens day. I do have to say that Mr. Labeouf has definitely grown up a lot since those days because damn, the boy is hot. So, what was my point again. I don't know. So, I'm going to back to watching my awesome movie. Until tomorrow.

Hawks Win! Hawks Win!

I don't go out that often since I moved because a) I don't really have the funds and b) I just started to make the kind of friends at work that I want to spend time with outside of work. You know what I mean. There are people who are fine to hang out at work but you don't really want to see outside of work and then there are people that are really cool that you want to spend more time with. So, I have started to make friends. A couple of weeks ago, I meant my friend Jessica and her son Josh for bowling. That was fun except for the whole being beat by a three year old. My ego still hasn't recovered from that. My friend Lourdes invited me to her birthday party last month, which sadly I didn't go because it was in the city and I had to close and would have taken me forever to get there. Today, I met my friend Katie at Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the Iowa/Penn State game. Now, normally I wouldn't watch the Hawkeye's play. I didn't really when I lived in school there or when I still lived in Iowa City but I had a Saturday off for the first time in forever and Iowa was playing on National TV. That doesn't happen that often because well, they have only been so-so this year or so I've been told. But today, I thought what the hell. I'll go and watch them. It did give me an excuse to have beer and wings and Katie was very good company. I like Katie because like me she is a transfer who has worked for B&N for many years and moved to New York because she has always wanted to live here. In that respect we have a very special bond. I really do feel like I'm starting to make roots here. It's taken me a little bit of time to do so but I do feel like I'm starting to hit my stride. Which is good because I would love to introduce my new friends to my family coming to visit this month. I want them to know that I'm not just here all alone but I do have people who I can hang out with and be me.

Here comes the sun. maybe

The last 2 days I had to open. Which means, I get up at 5:30am. Leave my apartment around 7 so I can get to work at 7:30 and don't get leave until 4pm. When I leave my apartment the sun is just starting to rise and when I leave work, closer to 4:30 because for whatever reason I can never leave on time, the sun is just about to set. It's like I never get to see the sun anymore. Well, today I close so I don't have to leave for work for another hour so of course that means today it's overcast and cloudy. Where is that bloody sun?! It just sucks! I hope this not a trend. I'm sure it's just left over from the storms we had in the northeast this past week but I want some sun. I just a little bit of sun.

I am hoping that the sun will come out tomorrow because that is my day off. I wonder what I'll do. I'm thinking a movie if the sun is still absent. Maybe, I'll go to a sports bar to see Iowa play. I did go to that school. I can pretend to care for an hour or two. Especially if there are wings involved.

I don't know if this wrong but I really want the Hanukkah box of Godiva. It has a dreidel on it. A Dreidel. How cool is that?! I realize to my Jewish friends this isn't that big of thing but for this Gentile, I think it's fucking Awesome! And it's not just the Godiva box I want but also our Hanukkah gift cards. They are just so pretty. I think I might give them away for Christmas. I know it's the wrong holiday but like I said, they are really pretty. So I'm I wrong?

I'm not a big fan of buses. Actually, I hate them and try to avoid them as much as possible. They are cramped and bumpy and I always sit next to someone talking on a cell phone or someone overly chatty. It's usually not an enjoyable experience for me. To get home I can take the bus or the subway. I usually take the subway. It means that I have walk an extra block or two but it means I don't have to take the bus. On Saturday, I was just too tired and I didn't feel like walking those extra blocks so I sucked it up and took the bus. It wasn't that bad but it does take a little bit longer because of the traffic but it's nice to know I have an options on how to get home.

E-Day

Oops, so much for 30 posts in 30 days. Oh well.

As you all know, Today is election day. So go out and vote! Go out and for no other reason that today as a nation we are about to make history. Today we are either going to elect the first African American President, the oldest elected to a first term or the first female vice president. How amazing is that? Go Vote!

I have already voted. I sent in my Absentee ballot to the great state of Iowa about a month ago. I decided not to switch my voting registration to New York yet because let's face it. New York is going for Obama. I want my vote to make a difference. Iowa is one of the swing states but not a major one. In 2000 Gore won the state by a few hundred votes and in 2004 Bush won by a few thousand. Who knows how close it will be this year but the most important reason for keeping my voting registration in Iowa for at least this election. My vote cancels out one of my parents and Kate's vote does the same. We like to keep things balanced in my family.

So while the rest of you are out making history, I will be home watching the Election Day House Marathon on USA! Go Vote!

Baby you can drive my car.

My Iowa driver's license expires on my birthday this year so I had I decided to switch my Iowa license for a New York one. I do live here now and it will make it easier on the poor NY bartenders to check my id. My local DMV is in the same shopping area as my local target. A few months ago, during on my trips to Target, I thought I would stop by and ask what I needed to switch licenses but the line was insane. It was like out the door so I turned to plan b) look it up online. The NY DMV has a very nice website but it was very confusing. One page said I needed two forms of id, my license I'm switching out and my passport would do, plus my birth certificate and another said I didn't need my birth certificate. I didn't have my birth certificate. So I called up mom and said, hey could you send it to me? Of course she did. So I was all prepared to go. I went back to the site one more time to print out the application and I reread everything I needed and lo and behold, I needed my social security card too. I don't think I needed all of this to get my Iowa license. I couldn't remember if I had my SS card or not, so I looked in my box that has all my important documents and it wasn't there. So, I texted mom this time to look for it and of course she had and expressed mailed it to me. All was well. I got it on a Tuesday and then my next day off was like Thursday but for whatever reason I didn't do it. Well, then I got sick and well, I'm vain. I didn't want to look all red and puffy on my license photo that I'm going to have for the next 4 or 5 years. So, I waited until my next day off, which was Friday. I got up early, though not as early as I had hoped. I wanted to get there as close to when they opened so I didn't have to stand in line all day. So, I quickly got ready. Made myself look good and left. I got to the DMV around 11am. I didn't know where I was supposed to go. I already had my application filled out so I knew I didn't have fight the crowd around the application desk. So, I got in line for Information. It seemed like the best place to start. It was a relatively short line so I waited for less then five minutes. I got up the lady, told what her what I wanted and she asked for my birth certificate, SS card and license. I asked her if she needed my passport and she was like, yeah if you have that I don't need your birth certificate. Well, that's just great. She checks everything, signs and few things and tells me I need to get picture taken so I got in that line. This time only 2 people ahead of me. So far so good. I get my picture taken and then given a number to wait for the next available person to finish my application. This is where I started to think the long wait was about to start. I got out my Tennis Week Magazine I had just got in the mail and sat to wait. I don't think I had a chance to finish one article when my number was called. I read a few lines for my eye exam and answered a few questions. Paid. and that was it. She gave me my interim license, which is just a piece of paper that says my name, DOB, etc and my actual license will be mailed to me in 2 weeks. So really it was a lot easier then I thought it would be. So, now I am officially licensed by the State of New York to drive a motor vehicle. Which if you think about, is kind of funny because I will probably never drive a car in the state. Well, I guess that's not true. Kat does live in Buffalo.

National Blog Post Month

It's National Blog Post Month or whatever so I am going to attempt to blog everyday of November. I didn't do all that badly last year but I didn't blog every day. Let's see if I can do it this year. Now, I'm still a little hungover from last night's Halloween fiesta so I'll definitely post more tomorrow.

I hope this counts a blog post. *lol*