Sometimes...A Drink is in Order...

Today's post will mostly be about me. I know I know....but what about March and June? Welp, if you happened to troll through the random description of this blog conveniently located to your right, sometimes I will take the full opportunity to talk about being a 20-something year old in New York. The first thing that comes to mind is that with the fadiculous (note: fadiculous= f*cking+ ridiculous) amount of people that live in NYC, it is still surprisingly lonely. But that's for later.

SO...I think I'll start with how I had a job interview today. Granted, it is a temporary position, but I WILL keep my hopes alive and will hopefully get the job. That being said...I thought it was a great big old sign that a HUGE freak thunderstorm occurred right when I needed to pick up March and June from the camp bus stop. Which was promptly proceeded with hail stones. Yes...in NYC, hail storms the size of dimes. And yes...I did get hit....


Anyways, after a lax day with the tykes, I found myself in a yoga class (Yoga To The People is a great outlet for stress and body movement when you don't have monies. It's donation based so you give what you can...) and hung out with a friend of mine from college. *gAsP!* I know...I still see people my own age- and it is AWESOME. Let's call this friend...Boy Wonder. Yes. Right, so he and I hung out for drinks and you know what, it got me thinking...about how NYC can be super lonely, and make you think about things you wish to the high heavens you didn't. But what was great was that we talked about things I never really get the chance to talk about, even with my roommates, like bouts of "hoomygawd what the HELL am I doing?!?!?!?!". Mostly because I don't actually see my roommates all that often because we work odd hours of each other, and partly because I am a turtle and my room is a big old shell. Either way, it was also nice to reconnect with someone from college who I knew, but am getting to know. And is outside the BGU household. (FYI: BGU= Brown Girls United. This is what we have dubbed our house...) But honestly, how does one survive that drought of lonely that drags it's muddy shoes onto you doorstep, and what do you do once it decides it won't leave? Well gentlefolk, I guess you pour yourself a drink-or have the nice bartender do it for you...cause that could be messy....

A Reprieve of the Not Wanted Kind...

This week may have been one of the most blistering weeks I have ever experienced in my life as I near my first year living "on my own" in New York. And folks, I don't just mean the rando-heat wave.

On Tuesday morning, I received an early phone call from my paid internship, saying that I had been replaced. {pause with me as we reflect on my life...how exactly does one get replaced at an internship???} Why? Because I apparently didn't give them enough notice about my having to leave for two weeks to do overtime whilst the parents were both shooting. Which ladies and gentlemen, I did in fact. So while I had every intention of going into work on Monday for a full two weeks of making up time I took off, well...that plan is now shot to hell.

I apparently then made it down to Tarturus (just so you know...I've been reading a lot of Percy Jackson. Which I HIGHLY recommend.) when the family I sit for decided on a whim to head to their beach house a week early before their trip to France. I may have actually balked. This therefore comes to mean...that I am literally out of work for 3ish weeks (I still work part-time as a B&N barista, but picking up spare shifts is hard to come by). This is also on top of that month long vacation in August.

After working as a professional babysitter/nanny for the past 10 months, been fired from a job (back in December) and replaced at an internship (this past week), there have been many many MANY lessons that I've learned. And many things that I wish to point out for some parents who decide to hire a personal babysitter/nanny.  Here is my list, let's call it the "Babysitters' Amendments Or: Ways to Not Get Cussed Out":

1) Please respect that sleep is necessary. I like it. You like it. I need it if I am supposed to look after your kids.

2) If you don't plan to actually listen to how I'm doing with my life when you ask me, then for the love of baby Jesus DO NOT ASK.

3) If you hear me talk about struggles of making it on my own, it is NOT adequate to say "okay" or "that sucks". That is not empathy, that is privilege.

4) It is important for you to realize that while there are a growing number of young post graduates who become nannies/babysitters/mannies/etc., please know that there are many life goals we wish to accomplish before middle age. And staying with your family for a long time is not really in the cards.

5) I am not an accessory. Period. If you really have no reason for me to be with you while you are with you child/ren, I would like to leave.

6) While having an internship is swell, being able to have a job to pay your rent and bills is better. And it is a really-tall-roller-coaster-sinking-gut-feeling when you are out of work.

7) Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet when life is telling you to take a break and refigure some stuff out.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not the type to really sit on my a** and mope. I just happen to search for more jobs and mope. No sense in being unproductive.

Parties are fun...

...especially when you're not invited.

That's actually part true. Now you see, Friday was June's birthday party, even though her birthday isn't until the end of the month (for those of you who don't know she turns 11). For her actual birthday- June and her family will be in Europe for two weeks. Take time to process this. *solemn head nod* Welp, I had the good fortune of "helping" set up for the birthday party at this shwanky restaurant where many of the dishes were not only made of or with chocolate, but were also at least $18 a dish. Yes...again this girl was turning 11.

Anyways, there is something to be said about walking down the street with 11 helium-filled ballons. It made me feel vaguely like this...

                                                 (image is by British graffiti artist Banksy)

And it was WINDY down in Union Sq. Of course, with balloons in tow- or rather lead-, we rendezvous at the restaurant. With 8 seriously chatty 11-13 year old girls and Producer Lady looking highly frazzled, I had to go upstairs to tie a balloon to every chair. By the time I got to the 7th chair I about needed SEVERAL stiff drinks. Mainly because I was tying balloons while girls were moving around chairs. (the heart on the mirror ...not my doing. I don't get paid that much)

At the end of this incredible ordeal, I sat down with March who was beyond moody that day (moreso than usual- in all likelihood it was probably because the day wasn't about him which is something he's NOT fond of...) and drank a glass of water. To which Producer Lady asked me to bring home some gifts. Damn. REALLY?! Like...five minutes woman please! I was offered to come back to have dinner with them for fun, but being that English major I was/am, I read between the lines which were the same as high school- "Like...you can come if you want, but you don't really have to so... you don't have to come back. If you want". So...I left for my weekend to visit my parents in Jersey. But not before I had myself a delicious doctored Mojito.

Lesson of the day: Some invitations, aren't invitations, and while being 11 was awesome when you WERE 11, being around them is an awful sight to behold. *shivers*.

How Not to Call the Child You Babysit a BAD Word...

*frustrated sigh*

I have to sometimes remember children are children and don't understand grown up logic sometimes, despite the "grown up" language we use with them. One of my roommates, let's call her Big Red (hehehe...she is going to HATE me....but I relish the impending doom that awaits when I get home) had to tell me that after an emotionally and physically long day.

Remember when I told you I work three jobs? Well I was at the media company and had just a really rough headspace there and back. Though it should be said...if you want an unexpected workout, become an intern. Walking everywhere...WOWZAS, thighs and gluts of STEEL people! {blinks} Back to the point, I left the office just not wanting to do much but go home on a gloomy day and curl up to watch some Eureka and read my awesome book of the day: Sam Bourne's The Righteous Men. So when I got to March's house, I waited for an hour for March and his mom Producer Lady to get home. And wouldn't you know it...March was in a nasty mood.

Reason? Because he couldn't get a yogurt smoothie that his friend had at lunch. I know. I forget what it was like when I was six. But he was in such a blue state of mind that he actually became downright rude and didn't want to speak or play activities with me for nearly the entirety of the time I was with him, which averages about 3.5/4 hours a day Monday-Friday. So while I was PISSED, cause while he was upset at the smoothie, his mom brought him an excessive amount of potato chips to placate him, and he was still rude. Maybe it's a product of my own childhood, but when I didn't get something I wanted, I just dealt with it. This my friends, is not the case. Either way, he was still an unhappy little bug and I was really not having it.

So I did something unexpected. Which was not speaking also. Usually I tried cocking him with a game of Go Fish or I-Declare-War which always cheers him up. But for some reason, I felt that there was a lesson to be learned in here somewhere. So I decided to make myself a nice little construction paper collage which was amazing if I do say so myself. This also gave me a chance to curse him out in my head. Repeatedly. And I have to state that it was an amazing catharsis. Really. But what ended up being interesting was that March began testing me to see if I was noticing him. And I was...but I was really about taking care of me. Him mom was home so he would go and bug her then look at what I was doing. After about an hr of this...he finally wants to give his input about my collage. I said "thanks, but no thanks, I don't really talk to people who don't want to talk to me." With that he began to understand what he was doing. I hadn't planned on it, but we finally had a conversation about what it means to be rude, and to also learn that just because you don't get what you want doesn't mean you can be gloomy and unpersonable about it.

In any case, I got an awesome collage out of it and time to think about my life and how I need to also not pull a March- to not let everything get me down. Art isn't just about keeping a child creative and engaged, it's about keep thy sanity. I find this a win/win non?!

Until next time.