this weekend

i don't have school right now, nor nannying hours.  this results in, lotsa traveling, but all within four boroughs.  (i've actually never been to staten island.  am i missing anything?)

 the last two days were very busy yesterday i did two weeks worth of laundry and cleaned my room and the bathrooms.  then i went to drinking monday and got plastered on vodka crans and then my friend david invited me over to his house for movies and matzoh so that was wicked fun then today i cleaned an apartment in astoria for cash and then i went to 36th street in brooklyn for another cleaning job and then i went to chinatown to get a turtle for my sister.

History -- Chinatown: Strangers In A Strange Land back when i got my turtle (like seven years ago) in front of every other store in chinatown there would be a grandma with a bucket full of baby turtles but i guess the city has been cracking down (they are illegal).  I saw no buckets of turtles, only a few stores had the little turtle tanks outside but with stone/ceramic turtles in them.  i hipped myself to the scene by finding a grandma near a tank with the stone turtles and i picked one up and said "turtle?"  and she made some mumbling and pointed at another store across the street that had mechanical frogs swimming in a bucket outside.  i went in that store and said "turtle?" to someone but they didn't work there then i found the right lady and said "turtle" but she didn't respond until the grandma from across the street showed up and then they sold me a turtle.  he is very cute.

and then i ate really delicious Vietnamese curry chicken with awesome bread but then i got really sick because i had been hungover and didn't realize it and that sucked.  so i had a sad train ride but a dude gave me his seat.

 i had a job interview to go to when i got home but i was super exhausted so i called and asked to reschedule it. i wouldn't usually do that but i am pretty ambivalent about this job b/c the pay sucks.  the lady was accommodating so no worries on that front.

It's hard finding a good P/T nannying gig because people don't understand how skilled and valuable real quality childcare is.  I don't want to get too far into it right now but this is an important worker's rights issue and show the devaluing of what was traditionally thought of as "women's work."  if you are interested you can read more about the situation here and here   New York is at least somewhat progressive in that the state passed a Domestic Worker's Bill of Rights.  

According to Jezebel, The law says that domestic workers, including nannies, housekeepers, and elderly caregivers, have:

• The right to overtime pay at time-and-a-half after 40 hours of work in a week, or 44 hours for workers who live in their employer's home;
• A day of rest (24 hours) every seven days, or overtime pay if they agree to work on that day;
• Three paid days of rest each year after one year of work for the same employer; and
• Protection under New York State Human Rights Law, and the creation of a special cause of action for domestic workers who suffer sexual or racial harassment.

But most domestic workers don't know about the law, and if they do many won't fight for their rights because of their immigration status.  sucks.  I have only had one paid day of rest or sickness or whatever you want to call it in the five years i have been nannying in NYC.

I have not worked as a domestic for less than minimum wage since I was a minor.  This is because I have white privilege and also that I am a native English speaker and a graduate degree holder and education degree student.  I can do more than just watch the kids though, I do have other skills like tutoring them in reading and writing and basic math and elementary piano and Spanish and a wealth of creative and cultural skills and willingness to physical exert myself and participate in play.  So in some ways I am worth the high price I seek and have received and I don't want to bend over for the first job offered that  I a bad move.  It would be about thirty hours a week so I would make more money than I do now, but it is lower quality of life for me because I have to work a about 10 extra hours a week to only make about 60 extra dollars.  That doesn't make any sense.  And i'm still in school full time and working additional part time gigs.  too much too muchery.


When I got home I relaxed for a bit and started to feel better.  I watched a program on PBS with Brian that was really good.  hosted by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Blacks in Latin America is fascinating.   Can't wait to see the other episodes in the three part series.


ok time for bed g'night.

oni and lank make with the good weekend

my brother lank was in town this weekend.  we always have a nice time but this weekend was exceptionally loverly.  yesterday was hiking on hook mountain, a late mexican dinner and sleep.  today found us making an awesome breakfast and then seeing the artists at union square, then heading over to greenpoint/williamsburg to visit Brooklyn Brewery, and closing that outing with dinner at Peter's Since 1969.

We left on the five train from Pelham Parkway around 12:00pm and I managed to get in 900 words during the trip into the city.  We went to the bank then took a lookie loo at the art in Union Square.  the best thing i saw at the artist's at union square was some photographs in gold leaf and one photograph that was pigmented, a picture of some graff at 5 Points (see above for a different picture of the same graffiti.)  i might buy that picture for a friend next Sunday.  also i enjoyed a beautiful picture of a cat in whose eye i saw the reflection of a harbor, by an artist named Stavros something something, whose last name I forget, but who was very gracious and friendly.  That picture inspire me to take the mask picture featured later in this post.  That mask was awesome, I want one.

Then Lank and I took the L train (where a curly haired girl played mandolin and sang softly to an older black man who was carrying a guitar, and everyone smiled to each other and clapped at the end) to the Bedford stop, played a quick game of "look at the hipsters" then went over to the brewery.  they had a nice little bar there and a wonderful cat, Monster,  a ten-year old male neuter who is in charge of all mousing operations over there at the brewery.

Lank and I split twenty dollars worth of tokens, giving us three each.  We then exchanged the a token each for a cup of Brooklyn Brewery's Brown Ale and Weisse Ale respectively.  The Weisse was amazing.  We enjoyed those and I snapped some photos with his camera because it is awesome and mine is
a. not
b. currently misplaced and
c. has a scratched lens.

Then we had the tour which was amazingly brief and very entertaining due to the tour guide and his love anecdotes about Williamsburg in the 1990's.  I highly recommend the tour but have a beer or two first as otherwise you will disappointed by its brevity.

Then we took to the long beer-hall style tables in the bar and settled in to make some new friends.  We met a Derrick and a Carston who work for ZocDoc, a online company which allows you to book appointments with doctors who take your insurance, and which my dear friend Dann reviewed quiet favorably last week.  They were lovely ready-made drinking bodies and we discussed topics as diverse as the distribution of the world's Jewry, life in Brooklyn, small vs. large dogs, fiction writing, life being good, and a voice acting. here's to them.

 Then we decided we needed to eat.  we walked back to bedford and found a comfort-food joint called Peter's Since 1969.  I had chicken and mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes because i was tipsy and that means carbs don't count.  lank had more chicken and mashed potatoes with gravy and some string beans.  Everything was fantastic and not too expensive (round $10-$12 per meal).  I highly recommend them.

Then with very full tummies we bored the train and rode our way home to the Bronx.  I'm reading The Ask by Sam Lipsyte and Lank was dipping into the Idiot by Dostoevsky.  I'm enjoying The Ask, but found it to be more intelligible and enjoyable when I was tipsy, so take that for whatever it is worth.  I read the Idiot a few years ago and found it brilliant, albeit massively depressing.  Sometimes I need massively depressing literature to check my perspective :)  life is good.

I would go on to tell you all about the hike we did in Nyack yesterday but I am a bit weary and still have plans for this evening  Suffice to say mother nature shone exceptionally bright in yesterday's beautiful weather.  The trial was just difficult enough to be a bit challenge but not kill me, and we did about 8 miles over the day.  The view from the top was astonishing in its beauty and the birdwatchers we met at the summit were very interesting and quite willing to share their knowledge with us.  The best part of the trip, for me, was showing the 8 year old triplets that accompanied us some things in nature which I knew some things about.  I love an open mind and young people can be absolute sponges for knowledge, once you get your foot in the door past their too-cool exteriors.

 

photo by: Joe Svantner

Bake a Cake in Stop Motion | Pretty Parade : Votre concentré d’inspiration, de tendances, de mode et de gourmandises.

Bake a Cake in Stop Motion | Pretty Parade : Votre concentré d’inspiration, de tendances, de mode et de gourmandises.

adorkable stop motion about baking a cake.

reminded me of the stop-motion film i made with the chasefactory
go to here and click on broth.  watch olive verdant too b/c i am the star/co-writer.
oh but i must mention that making broth turned me into a vegetarian for more than a year, so watching it might have some unforseen tummy uckles that could turn you off chicken.  best part of shooting that short?  buying a raw chicken at a suburban wal-mart at 3 a.m. along with duct tape and clamp lights, batteries and a drill bit.  the lady told us "you don't want to eat this, it's expired" and we were like, no, we don't want to eat that thing, of course not!

Hello my lovelies

Today I am a very sore and tired Oni!  Sunday's workout was extremely intense and my trainer is insane.  I hate that second-day-after soreness from weightlifting.  makes me want to go to sleep.

Last night I went out to the 12th St Ale House on 2nd avenue.  I like that bar, and I have a slight crush on one of the bartenders.  My company for the evening were the venerable mr. foley (he is my longest running drinking buddy and a fabulous fellow, you'll see more of him on these pages later, and his good friend Max, who I believe I may have met before, but I'm not sure.  Foley makes a wonderful web comic, and you can read it if you click that link there with his name on it.

We had a few drinks and then parted ways, Max going to a friend's couch to crash and foley and myself taking off for Ridgewood.  We then visited with ms. kiwi in vietnam (an affection name for Kiwi and Timbo's apartment.)  Foley told a fantastical story (plot for a new novel if I recall correctly), I went out on the fire escape and looked at the sky, and I wrote some in my little notebook.  After many hours I fell asleep on the couch in the redroom.  In the morning Timbo came home from his work and we watched the Maltese Falcon.  Welll I didn't watch the whole thing because it was time for me to head home.  I need to work on my novel today.  It's called Three.  I think you will like it when I get it done.

Today I am very tired as well.  For breakfast I had a McDonald's milk shake and a chicken salad.  Now I am going to make a big ole pot of chicken soup with matzoh balls.  not a good day to be a chicken.

oh, have you ever tried chicken and waffles?  if you are in new york head up to amy ruth's in harlem and get some.  amazing.