Yelp is a valuable app/website everywhere, but here its very, very helpful.( In case you don't know, Yelp is an app/site that gathers user reviews for stores, restaurants, services, etc...in any given neighborhood. You can read between the lines and see if you agree with the reviewer's point of view, and you can avoid anything that only gets 1 or 2 of a maximum of 5 stars across the board*.)
Since almost of my travel into Manhattan consists of me walking or taking a bus to a subterranean hole, hopping on a train, and then popping back out to the surface 3 - 12 miles away, it is very difficult for me to orient myself to a new area. Plus, I am no good at reading maps, so I just get all turned around...I do OK by myself, but shamefully, when I am with Josh, I just follow his lead and trust he knows where we're headed.
So - we attend an event, go to a movie, end up in a new part of Manhattan, we look to Yelp, which helps us find decent places to eat based (roughly) on our current location. I have few problems with Yelp itself.
But people! PEOPLE! They love to review the most mundane things as well as the little indy businesses that are all over NYC. Inevitably, they review things like each McDonald's location, or each Walgreen's. Inevitably, these reviews are universally horrible:
Walgreen's on Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn:
"After going nuts looking for the perfect gift for my baby niece,(a
pillow pet btw),I went around in circles trying to find someone to help
me, but no one was avilable. I would've gave them a single star, but
they get two stars because my little niece received a nice Christmas
gift, a ladybug Pillow Pet,but this place is definitely, messy, wrecked,
disorganized,poor customer service. The cashier that assisted me was
flirty I mean, more friendly than usual.;D!"
You searched for the perfect gift for your niece, and the first place you thought of was Walgreen's? I can say with certainty that the staff is not used to personal shopping as an offered service. Also - did you like the flirty-ness? Seems so - give them 3 stars for that, baby!
"don't ever go to the pharmacy at this walgreens on atlantic avenue.
going to this pharmacy could be a risk
the staff is rude and ignorant about medication
the pharmacy does not know what is going on
the pharmacy is unprofessional
the pharmacy is confused
the pharmacy should be shut down
the pharmacy treats people badly
i will never go this pharmacy ever again
this pharmacy lies about medication
the pharmacy is run poorly.
the pharmacy is dangerous"
Wow! Call the Health Department, don't just review it on Yelp, people! Must have been the same staff that transferred my prescription the same day I dropped it off, and called me twice to double check my insurance and the spelling of my name to make sure everything would go through smoothly. I hate customer service!
"This place is terrible. You can never make it out of here in less than
30 minutes because 1) there are not enough people working the registers,
or 2) the employees don't understand someone's coupon/request/language,
or 3) 90% of the products are locked behind plexiglas -- always the
sign of a class establishment -- so you must find someone willing/able
to unlock your purchases, or 4) some ungodly combination of these
factors."
It's not shocking that they lock stuff up. This is Brooklyn, people. The liquor store on our block doesn't really even let you in the store - you have to look at everything behind plexiglass - this is a result of the bad old days, peeps.
All of the employees at this Walgreen's were nice-to-super nice, it was just crazy-busy like all places here, since one Walgreen's serves about 500,000 people, unlike FL Walgreen's - one or two on each corner, every mile or so.
But why spend time reviewing Walgreen's? I know, I'm spending time reviewing reviews, but it just seems weird that people take their time to spew random reviews about chains on the interwebs when everyone has run into a grumpy cashier or two everywhere.
*Josh and I did find Yelp very useful on an evening when we were about to go on an evening cruise on the" Queen of Hearts" party boat to see the band one of his co-worker's is in. It looked old and creaky, and it had hardly any outdoor deck, so I looked it up on Yelp. 2 stars average - and mostly 1 star reviews. They said it was stinky, hot, horrible, leaky, had horrible food,you couldn't see any sights from inside the 500 passenger boat, and that it twas generally all around miserable. The crowd waiting to get on the boat looked miserable - a mix of retirees, couples who didn't make the upper age cut off to star on "Jersey Shore", barely legal girls in prom dresses (why?), and us. We bailed on that experience. Thanks, Yelp!
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
United States Postal.....Service?
The mail here is kind of crazy...we have a small vestibule that contains the standard apartment mailboxes - about 6 x 18, and they lock with individual keys. The postal worker, of course, has a key that opens a row at a time so they flip open from the top.
OK - none of that is crazy. The crazy part, to me, is that we have no outgoing mail service. I placed an outgoing letter in our box - it was still there when I checked the next day. I left it again, and again, not picked up.
I went online and googled "outgoing mail nyc apartments". The common opinion was that you would be insane to expect the mail carrier to take the outgoing mail out of your box. Some apartments have an extra one of these boxes for outgoing mail, but we don't. In some buildings, they have a top-lid box where you can leave mail, but we don't, and many people don't like these because they're not locked. I asked my dear friend, Nabin, my neighbor, about it. She told me to just drop my mail in a blue box down the block, and that they would never take my outgoing mail.
Arrrrgh! Why? With all of the problems facing the USPS (deficits, a plethora of little used locations, the 90's Tour de France team) would they reject business by bypassing the pick-up of my mail? We pay bills online, but I do like to send snail mail to friends and family, and I only send a few pieces a week. I know they have a tough walking delivery, but I would hope to be helping the USPS by sending mail - just a few letters a week.
Josh and I tried sending mail from our box one more time - this time I attached a kind post-it note telling them it was outgoing mail with a "Thanks! :)" salutation. He also placed the mail so that when the box was opened from the top, the mail was wedged horizontally into the box at the top so it couldn't be overlooked - it was the first thing the mail carrier would see when they flipped our row of boxes open.
And they took it! They took my outgoing mail! So excited!
But there are other problems - one tenant has a box that doesn't lock, and his mail is constantly spilling onto the floor. Is he out of town? Does he even live here any more? No one is looking into that...
Then - we came home on Monday night and the boxes looked like this:
Hell-O! Josh is unlocking our box at the top left, but the bottom row wasn't even locked - we could have grabbed all their mail - we tipped it shut and it stayed while we were in the vestibule, but who knows when it could flip open again that night?
I think I'll call the Postmaster! Delivering mail and packages here has to be a big pain, but surely their routes are shorter? Yikes!
OK - none of that is crazy. The crazy part, to me, is that we have no outgoing mail service. I placed an outgoing letter in our box - it was still there when I checked the next day. I left it again, and again, not picked up.
I went online and googled "outgoing mail nyc apartments". The common opinion was that you would be insane to expect the mail carrier to take the outgoing mail out of your box. Some apartments have an extra one of these boxes for outgoing mail, but we don't. In some buildings, they have a top-lid box where you can leave mail, but we don't, and many people don't like these because they're not locked. I asked my dear friend, Nabin, my neighbor, about it. She told me to just drop my mail in a blue box down the block, and that they would never take my outgoing mail.
Arrrrgh! Why? With all of the problems facing the USPS (deficits, a plethora of little used locations, the 90's Tour de France team) would they reject business by bypassing the pick-up of my mail? We pay bills online, but I do like to send snail mail to friends and family, and I only send a few pieces a week. I know they have a tough walking delivery, but I would hope to be helping the USPS by sending mail - just a few letters a week.
Josh and I tried sending mail from our box one more time - this time I attached a kind post-it note telling them it was outgoing mail with a "Thanks! :)" salutation. He also placed the mail so that when the box was opened from the top, the mail was wedged horizontally into the box at the top so it couldn't be overlooked - it was the first thing the mail carrier would see when they flipped our row of boxes open.
And they took it! They took my outgoing mail! So excited!
But there are other problems - one tenant has a box that doesn't lock, and his mail is constantly spilling onto the floor. Is he out of town? Does he even live here any more? No one is looking into that...
Then - we came home on Monday night and the boxes looked like this:
I think I'll call the Postmaster! Delivering mail and packages here has to be a big pain, but surely their routes are shorter? Yikes!
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Apartment Compartments
OK, friends - its been forever since I posted to this blog, but I
hope to get better about it! The road to hell is paved with intentions
to write one's blog regularly, too, I guess...Various topics I will be
covering soon (and this is to remind myself, as well) are: outgoing
mail, women + pants = sin, silly Yelp reviews (this city runs on Yelp),
Peanut's dog issues, nice deli men, cars honking horns, Peanut's toy
travels, temps, and getting around for the directionally challenged.
ALSO - my settings are fixed so you don't have to belong to Blogger or Google to comment! Yay! I am still new to this...
Having moved from a 1,500 sf house to a 400 sf apt hasn't been easy (I know - wah-wah-wah!), even though we REALLY did our best to fling more than half of our FL stuff to the wind. It took until last weekend to really arrange this place so it was liveable for 1 dog, 2 people, and 3 cats.
We had our bed upstairs initially because it was so hot when we moved in, and the window unit was there...but its cooling down, and we had no living room, because our subterranean level was too crowded with junk to imagine hanging with anyone else down here. Now our bedroom and kitchen are downstairs, and the bath and living room are up. Now, some pics!
ALSO - my settings are fixed so you don't have to belong to Blogger or Google to comment! Yay! I am still new to this...
Having moved from a 1,500 sf house to a 400 sf apt hasn't been easy (I know - wah-wah-wah!), even though we REALLY did our best to fling more than half of our FL stuff to the wind. It took until last weekend to really arrange this place so it was liveable for 1 dog, 2 people, and 3 cats.
We had our bed upstairs initially because it was so hot when we moved in, and the window unit was there...but its cooling down, and we had no living room, because our subterranean level was too crowded with junk to imagine hanging with anyone else down here. Now our bedroom and kitchen are downstairs, and the bath and living room are up. Now, some pics!
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| This is our closest corner - Washington and Bergen, in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. It looks a little rough, but it's undergoing improvement. Every block is different! |
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| Just in front of our building. When you turn the corner, here you are! |
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| This is the living room/office facing the door to the hallway - we're on the 1st floor, and just a left out the door gets us out of the building! Poang! |
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| Here, we are approaching the bathroom - door on the left. I would say front door - but its the only door out upstairs. Closet to the right, bath straight ahead. |
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| Bathroom - exciting, I know. The black and green boxes are plastic storage bins that open by flipping open from the top. We had no storage before we got these at Ikea, the apartment dweller's friend! |
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| The upstairs door opens conveniently onto the narrow stairs...this is the first set of stairs before the right turn. Storage space for DVDs! |
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| The second part of the stairs down to the bedroom |
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| Cozy! This takes up the whole space, but we both have room to get out, and I love the window sills behind us! |
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| Essential wire shelf and COFFEE CENTER in narrow hallway between the kitchen and the bed! |
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| Josh cooking breakfast for dinner in the kitchen. It takes 10+ minutes to get hot water to come out of the kitchen faucet = worst thing about this apartment. |
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| Photo of the living room, facing the two windows. It gets good natural light during the day. |
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| See, we do have room to unfold the futon! Who's coming to visit first?! |
Thursday, August 30, 2012
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...)
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...)
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
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!
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...
Liz Lemon: You don't know that.
Frank Rossitano: I do know. I've watched seven different people die in subway stations.
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!
Saturday, August 25, 2012
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!
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