My germ standards, already low, start to slip...

Days 4 & 5: August 21st and 22nd, 2012

No biggies - spent my time waiting for a call back from the previous day's job interview, and got ready for another interview with another charter school on Thursday...Success Academy! Wait until I tell you about this one...anyway, I notice that I feel compelled to use baby wipes my first few days here...walking around, touching dirty stuff constantly, and then inevitably, eating or drinking something on the street, or wanting to rub my eye, causes me a bit of stress until I can wipe off my hands. Hand sanitizer won't do, although it is probably more effective - I want to SEE the dirt come off!

Well, by now, things are different levels of clean in my mind...if I ride a new subway line, yuck - those seats, poles, etc...are dirtier. If I just ride my good old 2/3 line that comes within 4 short blocks of our borrowed apt...hey - we know each other! It's OK! Rub your eyes! Drink right out of that soda can; don't wipe around the rim. Oh, wait...maybe that's why everyone offers you straws at convenience stores when you buy a canned drink?

Also, anything within the apartment "complex" is practically STERILE! The wooden benches in the courtyard...I'll eat a sandwich off of them! The handrails in the stairwell...up 5 floors...just like a surgical theater! No problem...everything in here is so much cleaner than the world outside - how could it harm me?!

I still don't have a cold...I am pretty impressed with my usual weenie immune system.

30 Rock Moment: Wearing my bathing suit top as a bra to do laundry on Wednesday...oh, like you haven't done THAT before (unless you're a guy...no judgement...)

It just wouldn't be fair...

Day 3: Monday, August 20th, 2012 OK - I think I am going to have this interview in the bag...I interviewed for a 3rd grade position at Empower Charter School in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. (http://www.explorenetwork.org/empower-charter-school) I felt really confident because school was starting in 3 days. (I even brought along my first day of school survival bag - I thought...maybe they'd let me loose in my new classroom so I could be ready!)

I was freaking out, and insisted we take a cab so that I could arrive on time. Ugh..another 5th floor walk-up, and there is no air conditioning! How can anyone look decent when they're working?! (OK - I'm spoiled...)

What stands out for me here, and makes me know I won't get this job, are the many, many questions about how I get along with "others".  This charter school assigns TWO teachers to each classroom - genius! Until, I find out that a) there are 30 kids per class and b) I will be working with an inexperienced teacher, that while needing lots of mentoring, will be assigned a topic to teach, and we will not be allowed to switch all year.

I mentioned that I had conflicts with other before, but that I think hashing out disagreements was always going to be a possibility when anyone works closely with others.
Prinicpal Whomever: "What would make you frustrated when working with someone?"
Me: "Well, someone who doesn't fulfill their obligations...doesn't do what they say they will."
Principal Whomever: "What if they have less experience? What if they are different from you? What if they just make a mistake? Get overwhlemed?"
Me: Well...yeah...obviously I will be very understanding...I've had interns, and worked with many team members, and things come up...I mean, when you work with someone who cannot do what they say they will, week after week..."
Principal Whomever: "Your co-teacher will not be an intern!!" (SQUAWK!)
Me: Yes, but you mentioned, I might be with a less experienced teacher, and I would be very supportive and giving, unless, they just don't try their best...
Principal Whomever: ...and how would you get along with this person if they were less experienced than you...

Then, I tried to show her my portfolio of walk-throughs, student work, lesson planning, recommendations, and she put her hand up and said "If I wanted to see that, I would have asked you to bring it. It would be totally unfair to look at your portfolio if the next candidate we interview doesn't have one..."

WHAT!? I don't get this - we can't, and shouldn't, treat kids like they're all the same, but I can't just share a few highlights from my 6 year career? (I know - 6 years isn't much...but...) This just wasn't gelling...so we ride the subway home, and I feel bummed.

30 Rock Moment: The subway is delayed, possibly by 'something' obstructing the tracks on the 2-3 line...

Frank Rossitano: Wow. I never would have had the guts to do what that dude did.
Liz Lemon: You don't know that.
Frank Rossitano: I do know. I've watched seven different people die in subway stations.

The bright part of my day was getting to feed this stray behind our building...she's sweet...our courtyard and the backyard of the buildings behind us really are lovely. When you think Harlem, do you think it looks like this? This is a great neighborhood!

President of the Phillipines

OK - I'm not posting daily...here it goes quickly! DAY 2: Sunday, August 19th - I decided to go shop for some interview clothes since I wasn't sure if my FL duds would work. The night before when we went to Koreatown, we were near Herald Square and I saw the Macy's! OK - so on Sunday we go have pizza, then SHOPPING! Yeah, Josh's favortite! The biggest Macy's in the world...I did find a great dress for $198...a little pricey, but a Ralph Lauren that Josh helped me pick out. While Josh visited the "men's lounge" (disappointing, because it wasn't a room full of couches and computers with fast Wi-Fi connections), I found out that the dress was actually on mega-sale at $35.99! Yay! Unfortunately, that was the extent of my luck in the following day's interview... 30 Rock Moment: Finding this suit that looks like the one Liz Lemon wore in the first episode...Jack "You should dress like that everyday." Liz "Yeah, if I was president of the Phillipines!" Her dress looked like this one...it was only $20! Maybe I would have gotten Monday's job with it!

Welcome to NYC!

I promised my sister Michi that I would dedicate this blog to my first 100 days in NYC...then, (you) and I can assess my progress thus far...let's hope we're all more generous than Fox News in this endeavor! I have to start with a few days in this post...I will keep up daily from here on out! DAY 1: Saturday, August 18th We dropped Peanut and Puck in NJ, and rolled over the George Washington Bridge into upper Manhattan for the first time. Rolling is an accurate verb here - it cost $12 to creep across this short span. Then, we dropped off two more cats, Paco and Cookie, at Paul's house (thank you, Paul!) and proceeded to make our way to Aisha's 5th floor walk-up in Harlem. Whew! In the process of parallel parking it, Josh (and this is a critical point) hit the car behind us, and scraped the bumper.I got out of the car, and was approached my an incredulous bystander..."yo, dawg!", shaking his head, arms raised in the anger embrace (you know - arms stretched, perpendicular to their torso, palms open, and the gesture looks like an invitation to a hug if you ignore the expression on the anger embracer's face?) He was calm, and didn't speak beyond that. His friends on the stoop were laughing like hyenas, and let us know that he just got this bumper replaced last week...Josh was sweating it, and trying to figure out what to do...he didn't want to exit the car. I said - "NO INSURANCE - we are doing this with cash..." The anger embracer was very calm and reasonable, and we paid him $300. We were briefly worried that we REALLY got fleeced until he quickly got into his car and drove off - whew! At least we were somewhat extorted by the right guy! (I think he could have buffed out those ELECTRIC BLUE marks from the paint off our rented SUV...) We unloaded and I laughed all the way through moving our possessions upstairs. Everyone was very welcoming, open and holding doors, introducing themselves, and saying hello to we rumpled FL urchins. Josh admitted that if I had hit the car, he would have been irritated...I was happy to pay $300 to have things go smoothly! We had more energy than we predicted, and decided to drop the SUV off at LaGuardia early, and as we drove away, freshly showered and unpacked, a neighbor who witnessed the fender bender cheerfuly yelled "Drive Carfeully!" Welcome to New York!