"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.

Pre-Fest

Months ago, I wrote about how I was all excited to go to Philadelphia Folk Fest.  I wrote about how I wanted to learn 50 songs in time for PFF's 50th festival.  I did not reach my goal.  It was a high goal for a new-ish ukulelist with a lot going on.  I am not deeply disappointed to only know about twenty-five songs.

In March, I wrote that I knew the following songs:

1.) First Impressions (Julia Nunes)
2.) Walkin' After Midnight (Patsy Cline)
3.) What's Up (Four Non-Blondes)
4.) Science Fiction/Double Feature (Rocky Horror Picture Show)
5.) Rainbow Connection (From The Muppet Movie)
6.) Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head (Burt Bacharach and Hal David - B.J. Thomas)
7.) Nowhere Man (The Beatles)
8.) You're the One That I Want (From Grease)

This list has changed slightly as I learned more songs and forgot others.  My current list is:

1. What's Up - The Four Non-Blondes
2. Creep - Radiohead
3. Baby - Justin Bieber/The Supremes
4. Cryin' - Aerosmith
5. In My Life - The Beatles
6. Science Fiction/Double Feature - Rocky Horror Picture Show
7. There's a Light (Over at the Frankenstein Place) - Rocky Horror Picture Show
8. Time Warp - Rocky Horror Picture Show
9. Walkin' After Midnight - Patsy Cline
10. We Belong - Pat Benatar
11. Stand by Me - Ben E/ King
12. YMCA - The Village People
13. Believe - Cher
14. A Little Respect - Erasure
15. Space Oddity - David Bowie
16. As the World Falls Down - David Bowie (From the movie Labyrinth)
17. American Pie - Don McLean
18. We Will Rock You - QUEEN
19. We Are the Champions - QUEEN
20. Your Face Again - Uni and the Ukes
21. MTA - The Kingston Trio 
22. Political Science - Randy Newman
23. The Rainbow Connection - From The Muppet Movie
24. Total Eclipse of the Heart - Bonnie Tyler
25. My Hope - Molly Lewis

So, that's what I'm going to the 50th Philadelphia Folk Festival knowing.  Wish me luck!

Folking Around

In 2005, I went to my first Philadelphia Folk Festival.  It was amazing.  It was one of the best times of my life.  The friends, the strangers, the music, the RV camping, it was all amazing!  Since this trip, I have always thought of Folk Fest as one of my Happy Places (the other being Odyssey of the Mind World Finals).   

The following year, the same friend and I went and volunteered, and it was just as crazy fun.  It's always hot but there are always exciting way to cool off.  Like walking to the nearby creek, playing by the water pumps, or starting or finishing a water fight.   Also, this time, we camped for real!

The year after that, my friend and I went again, this time we brought our boyfriends.  Another good time.

Now, it's 2011 and I haven't been to Folk Fest in four years.  I can't believe it's been that long!  Time flies.  It's depressing, really.

At any rate, I'm itching in the worst why to go back to Folk Fest.  This time, I'm bringing and playing an instrument.  My ukulele of course.  I think I've settled on Karma as a name for her.  With this dream to head back to the promised land of Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, I've formed a goal to save up some money (mostly so I can afford to miss five days of work) and to learn and memorize 50 songs on the uke before my journey.  I've learned eight so far.  Not too shabby.

I've made a list of all the songs I want to learn.  I'm not writing them all out here though.  But, here are the songs I feel pretty good about, more or less in the order I learned them:

1.) First Impressions (Julia Nunes)
2.) Walkin' After Midnight (Patsy Cline)
3.) What's Up (Four Non-Blondes)
4.) Science Fiction/Double Feature (Rocky Horror Picture Show)
5.) Rainbow Connection (From The Muppet Movie)
6.) Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head (Burt Bacharach and Hal David - B.J. Thomas)
7.) Nowhere Man (The Beatles)
8.) You're the One That I Want (From Grease)

I Can't Think of a Good Name for My Ukulele...

I've been playing my ukulele pretty consistently since I got it for my birthday a month ago.  With a full-time job, I don't have the kind of time writing, practicing, and socializing requires.  I have to pick and choose.  This is why I've fallen behind on my blogs.  I feel guilty for always choosing my ukulele, especially in regards to my vegan blog because I care so much about it.  It's just that I come home from work feel completely deflated.  Once I come through my bedroom door, I put my things down, I instinctively find myself reaching for my uke.  As I play though the song I worked on the night before to see what stuck, my uneasiness from work dissipates and I feel ok again.  Then I shower, eat, catch up on online stuff, find a new song to try, sleep, and everything starts over again.

Despite the ukulele's happy-go-lucky image, I can't help but feel hardcore as I push on my calluses at my cash register at work.   

Holiday! Celebrate!

Christmas was nice.  I was annoyed that I had to work late X-mas Eve (without time-and-a-half!) but at least I got a day at home with the fam.  I had been working hard on my new ukulele for a Christmas sing-a-long.  This sing-a-long was meant to be a Christmas gift to my family though I'm not sure this was apparent when I "gave" it to them.  I'm also not sure that it was apparent that I actually practiced as often as I could since I wasn't as good as I had hoped.  I had planned to give everyone red and green Hawaiian Leis but I couldn't find leis and had to settle for Mardi Gras necklaces.  Still, I'm pretty sure everyone had a good time.  I had a great time playing and that's all that matters, right?  My friend Zo helped me put together the sing-a-long booklets and I was glad that she came home with me for Christmas.  We have a lot in common and my family really liked her.

With the holidays past, I now have two new vegan cookbooks, an awesome mix CD, a necklace, a purse, Toy Story 3, Planet Earth, socks, a book called Lizard, a gift card, money, and potatoes which came with a potato masher (I've been using bean cans to mash my potatoes for years).  With the gift card, I got a sketchbook and some quality pencils because I have been wanting to start drawing regularly.  With the money, I will pay bills, save, and get some rain boots, pants, and Gary Franicone books.