Where the Summer Went

I did a lot this summer. Some of which I've already written about in detail. Some I was too busy to record. Here are some summer highlights:

1.)  Busking - I played my ukulele outside on sidewalks and street corners a lot this summer.  I will give details later.
2.)  Volunteered - I helped a group called Eastern Service Workers Association (EWSA).
3.)  Got Hired - I got a new job.
4.)  Went to Folk Fest - See you next year!
5.)  Catered Vegan Weddings
6.)  Pet Sat - For a solid month I would get up, get ready, go dog sit, then go to work for 8-1/2 hours, then go cat sit.  These days were 10 hours is total.  Unless I was bunny-sitting too then they were 11 hours.  Not that I'm complaining.  I wouldn't have been able to keep my head above water without them.
7.)  Played Quizzo with roommates at our neighborhood bar.
8.)  Protested things like carriage horses and circuses. 
9.)  Hung out with friends
10.)  Ate vegan ice cream whenever possible
11.)  Blogged!

"I'm New."

"I'm new." is one of those magical phrases that immediately frees the speaker from any potential blame.  I am in the fortunate position to be able to make good use of the phrase, "I'm new" as I "accidentally" confuse the boss' fancy bathroom for the regular one and feign ignorance about the "no booze on the job rule" between Barcardi shots. No, that's not really true.  There are two bathrooms here.  Men and Women.  And I don't do shots.  Ever.

My new co-workers have been really patient with me as I learn the ropes though and it's been really helpful to getting into the swing of things as they say.

A typical day at my new office job consists looks like this:

7:30 - Wake Up/Getting ready
8:25 - Bus
8:53 - At Work
9:00 - Various pickups/drop-offs around the city.  Cover the receptionist for her 10:30 smoke break.
11:00 - Get everyone's lunch orders
11:15 - Call-in and order everyone's lunch
11:30 - Go pickup lunches
12:00 - Deliver lunches
12:00 - Cover receptionist for her lunch break
1:00 - Take my lunch/ paper shredding 
2:00 - Drop-offs, pick-ups, odd and ends
3:30 - Cover receptionist for her smoke break
3:45 - Bank Drop-off
4:00 - Odds and ends, sit around.
5:00 - Out

And then...
5:20 - Play my ukulele by Superfresh or a Chinatown fish shop.
6:20 - Volunteer at ESWA (Eastern Service Workers Association)
7:40 - Home

No wonder the days are flying by!  Some notes on the schedule above.  When I started, I had more sit around time, but since being trained on the phones, things have picked up.  Also when I started, there was a huge box of paper I was given to shred.  Huge!  After the shredder was full, I asked where the recycling was and was told that there was none.  The City of Philadelphia does not make it easy for businesses to recycle as the recycling department is severely underfunded.  So, every day since I started, I've been shredding just the amount I can fit in a Trader Joe's bag and taking this bag home to recycle.  I've even contacted a local group of artists, Dumpster Divers, who makes art with recycled products to see if they would like to use my mounds of shredded lawyer bills.  They haven't gotten back to me.  As luck would have it, one of my old foster rabbits came back to me and now I am using the paper as rabbit litter.  Pretty handy.

After playing my ukulele outside, I've been going to ESWA to give them typed member cards.  ESWA is a group I've written about before, and among many other admirable things, they are old-school and they use a typewriter to create member cards.  These cards contain information on every person they meet from canvassing and tabling.  This information includes the person's name, address, phone number, where they met the volunteer(s), and what was discussed, and any events or assistance the person may have helped or been helped with.  These cards are typed but when ESWA told me their typewriter was broken, I volunteered to do them at work.  So, I've been doing about 10 a day, dropping them off, and picking up more to do.

I'm happy to do all the things above though I'd be lying if I said it wasn't tiring me out.  I need my down time.  I don't feel myself without it.  And lately, I've been thinking about writing here and elsewhere all the time.  I wish there were a few more hours in the day.

A Little Green

Last Saturday, I went home for my Dad's birthday.  The train ride to my hometown is just an hour though it's not often I have the time to make the trip worthwhile.  My weekend plans are always plentiful and I'm always yearning to just sit and chill out.  But whenever I am able to take the train back, I am always reminded that how much good a little greenery can do.

"Pressure pushing down on me,
Pressing down on you no man ask for."

As soon as I start to see more grass and trees out my train window, I feel a gradual clamp release from my chest that I didn't know was there.  Maybe it's something psychological with the color itself or maybe it's that I have much less I need to do in rural Pennsylvania.  Either way, I am always grateful for the break.

I aspire to one day have a game closet like the one in The Royal Tennenbaums.

For my dad's birthday, I got him a game.  I like getting games for presents because everyone likes them, but hardly anyone ever gets them for themselves.  To celebrate the occasion we had a nice dinner and later my dad, his friend, and I played our ukuleles.

There use to be an orange cat at "home".  I miss him terribly. 

Writing about this makes me want to take a little nap and wake up when it can happen again.

Happy 65th Birthday to Freddie Mercury!

"I'll always walk around like a Persian Popinjay..."