It’s Fat Tuesday! It’s Mardi Gras! It just stopped snowing an hour ago. It wasn’t a fun snow either. It was wet and windy. I ventured out into the wet and windy wilderness.

I had an appointment to visit a beauty school on Bergenline Avenue in West New York. I originally thought it was at 2:00 but it’s a good thing I checked and saw it was actually at 1:00. I bundled up and headed over to the train station to catch the light rail.

I could have easily walked over to the Ninth Street station but didn’t. The thing about the light rail is that you have to buy a ticket and then have it validated next to the ticket vending machine. I saw the Tonnelle Avenue train waiting to go but the machine wasn’t giving me any tickets.

When I moved over to another machine and had the ticket stamped and validated the train was gone and I was standing out there in the cold. I thought I was going to be late, and called Bill who got the phone number for me, and called the school who didn’t seem to mind and appreciated my calling.

A few minutes later another light rail came in and I hopped on it. No one checks the tickets. No conductor walking through the cars. I have only seen a ticket check once, and that involved police asking to see tickets once people disembark.

I’ve often thought about just hopping on the train and taking my chances, but it would be a $300.00 fine and I’m a chicken.

The school was only a few blocks away from the Bergenline station and it was an easy walk with some side steps to avoid the ponds and lakes on the street corners. I hadn’t been up in this Bergenline area in years.

I used to come up here occasionally when I lived in Weehawken. Some good shopping deals and plenty of eye candy for me.

I made it into the school and filled out a form and sat. Definitely not as hectic as the other school last week. Where they had over 200 people running around, this place had maybe 50 at best.

I met with Carlos who seemed nice. Definitely looked like someone who’s been cutting hair for 23 years. Nice guy though. He had some things to say about the school I visited last week.

He said the city school gets money from the government to get mainly women from the homeless shelters to train as beauticians and sometimes the police would be called 3 times a day due to fights breaking out. Not my type of place at all.

Carlos said that because I was unemployed I would instantly qualify for financial aid, as well as a Pell grant and they would help me with all of that, including student loans if need be. It was a brief meeting but it went well I think.

I was definitely more comfortable there than I was at the other place which just seemed like a mill. And I didn’t have a cumbersome book to lug around afterward. The commute isn’t so bad and the smaller classes is a plus.

1600 hours versus 1200, an 8 month course against a 6 month course.

I haven’t made my mind up yet, but I am leaning in staying local. Walked back to the apartment, caked with snow. Not going out again, staying in. Lost is on tonight after all.

There is something for the unemployed of Hoboken going on at McSwells tonight. It seemed like a good thing, but it’s $10.00 cover was a bit off putting. I could see $5.00 as a reasonable cover, but not $10.00.