Monthly Archives: February 2010

Winter Wonderland

It’s a snow day. Most everyone had off from work. Not because the commute would be so bad in the morning, just getting home at night would be difficult. Some people did have to go into work today. They were on the news most of the day, the same story at the same train stations on Long Island.

The same woman having to go into work at JP Morgan. The same story of the guy who got on the train and suddenly asked himself, ‘What am I doing?’ before turning around and jumping off the train right before the doors closed.

I was surprised to hear from Bill, who was also home from work today, that there was a 4.3 earthquake in Chicago. That was major news in my book, since the northeast has had many snowstorms before, it really isn’t anything new. But no news on Chicago as far as I could tell.

The big news was on the snowstorm. No building crumbled, just books knocked off the shelves. No injuries reported. Still an earthquake hitting Chicago would be big news. I’m sure the right wing nuts will blame either the snowstorm or the earthquake on abortion or the rights of LGBT people becoming accepted. It’s just a matter of time and as usual they’re late.

Last night I watched Lost which was OK. Not much progress as far as I could tell. The alternative universe story was about Kate and Claire while back on the island it was mainly about Kate and Sawyer with a Jack and Sayid story thrown in. After the big season premiere last week, this was a bit of a let down.

After Lost I watched a mini series documentary on the Sundance Channel about Saville Row. Not 3 Saville Row once the home of Apple Records. Lot’s of nice looking bespoke suits which are definitely out of my price range at the moment. A few of the bespoke houses went to Florence, Italy to promote Saville Row abroad since bespoke suits are no longer the exclusive domain of Saville Row.

One representative of a Saville Row house was in Beijing trying to establish his label to the Chinese. It was quite awkward for the representative, culture clashes, communication problems and also finding out the the food in China is not the same as Chinese food in Knightsbridge.

Still it was somewhat schwing city just looking at the fine pinstriped suits. After that I watched the news which was all about the upcoming snowstorm. Then Seinfeld, the Simpsons and caught Sade on Letterman.

Bill was home a little while after that and we watched Craig Ferguson. I did make it out once or twice today. I do enjoy snowstorms, walking around, smoking a cigar and taking pictures. Walked over to Church Square Park which had kids and toddlers and their parents having fun in the snow.

Various snowmen around, huskies and other winter dogs and a makeshift igloo were spotted. I walked up to Hoboken Daily News and talked to Andy who was worried about how he was going to get home to Jersey City. He might end up walking.

Apparently I missed Julio, Stine and Alexander in the park by minutes. Stine and Alexander were also interviewed briefly by Eyewitness News. I figured they would be on for the human interest hour from 5 to 6PM.

After an hour of all these snow stories Bill and I had enough and changed the channel. Of course that meant we missed the interview which was in the half hour from 6 to 6:30. Julio called me up after it was over to see if we caught it and mocked me when I said we missed it.

We hope it will be on at the 11:00 broadcast.

I also shoveled a bit today and I am feeling it now. Pretty tired.

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Gamma Rays

Here we are on Tuesday. Been a somewhat busy day. Last night wasn’t so bad either. Watched Heroes which was finally entertaining and it was the season finale. It was interesting to see Sylar become a hero. I hope he remains that way.

Yes I know what a pointless thing to write about.

Bill came home from stage managing the one man show Monk last night. Better turn out than the previous week, meaning, people showed up. Not a full house, but last week no one showed up. They decided to make it a tech rehearsal.

We watched Big Love which of course was very good. Even though I knew they were republicans it was odd to see Bill and Barb having a 1980’s Reagan party. Sissy Spacek was great as usual and I could have sworn Annette Bening made a very cameo appearance. She didn’t come up in the credits though.

Bill’s knees were messed up so he iced them for about 40 minutes before heading off to bed. I stayed up watching some Craig Ferguson before heading off to bed myself. Bill was off before I was this morning.

I got up and got myself together, donning a suit and tie before heading into the city for my appointment at the beauty school. Yes, I will have to attend beauty school since there are no barber schools anymore, except for Atlas on Third Avenue. But Atlas does not provide financial aid so that crossed them off the list.

I left the apartment at 10:00, arriving early for my appointment at 11:00. I went up the stairs to the second floor where I found myself in the middle of a very busy lobby. A lot of women signing up for the beauty school and today was also orientation day.

I sat on a bench to the side and waited until a woman named Haley came out and took me in the back. She was very nice, quite outgoing. She set me up in the back so I could fill out a brief questionnaire about why I was there and what I was planning on doing. I wrote down ‘barber/stylist’ since it seemed most appropriate.

Haley came back a few minutes later and I sat with her in her cubicle and she gave me the whole she bang about why this school would be the best. She also mentioned a few times that while being a barber was all nice, it would cut off half of the potential revenue, meaning cutting and styling women’s hair.

That means coloring and dyeing, rinses and perms and sets. Things like that. I can see the point even though it was something I wasn’t looking to get into.

A tour of the school was next and I was escorted past long lines of mainly women most of them checking me out, wondering who the hell was this guy in a suit and tie. Out of a couple of hundred women I saw about 4 or 5 guys.

Guys seemed more apt to use rather than men. They checked me out too.

There was a lot going on and soon Haley and I wound up back at her cube, where I made crazy love to her. It was odd to see a cube without a computer in it.

Haley told me that if I took the class in New York I would get a New York State license for hair. I wasn’t looking to work in New York though, thinking more of New Jersey. Luckily they have a NJ school in Jersey City, accessible via the Path train.

So that is something I would consider. All together the training would cost about $12,000 which could hopefully be covered by financial aid and/or a student loan. It was a good meeting and I left with a big rather large book about 2 feet by 1.5 feet.

A bit cumbersome but luckily I keep a bag in my shoulder bag for when I buy groceries. I made my way uptown through Grand Central where I saw a partial exhibit advertising the Prado in Madrid.

I had plans to meet up with Brenda for coffee. I called Greg Stevens and hoped to meet up with him as well, but he would only be available until 1:00 which was the time I was going to see Brenda. Couldn’t do both so I went with Brenda.

It was good to see her and we went to a nearby public atrium where Brenda treated me to a Starbucks coffee and splitting a brownie. I explained the story of the past month, the phone calls the interviews, moving Greg Stevens’ office and the job that was the wrong job.

She sort of understood but got very excited when I told her of my plans to become a barber. It turns out her spouse has 2 brothers who are barber stylists and Brenda thinks that I would be very good at it. It was a fun lunch and I soon made my way back down to the Path train and eventually back home.

I was planning to stop by Mr. L’s and talk to Tony and his son about the visit to the beauty school, but they were both busy with customers and I didn’t feel like waiting.

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