Today, I will be venturing into unknown territory….

I will be teaching high school. 

A place I often work for as resident lighting designer asked me if I would come in and talk to some of their arts classes about careers in the entertainment industry. So at 9:30AM Eastern Standard time, Ben and I will mosey our way in and try and pull something out of our asses about why its a great idea to do what we do. 

Truth is, I don’t have a good reason. Other than I love it. 

About two days ago I received my first student loan repayment letter. And let me tell you, it hit me like a ton of bricks. 

I guess in some way I knew what graduation meant. I knew it was the end of school for me. I understood this, accepted it, and took it in stride. But I guess it never really sunk in as to just what it all meant for me until I got that letter. 

I was, I am terrified. It wasn’t so much the over all amount so much as the amount of time in which it is going to take me to pay them off. Right now I am scheduled for 120 payments. Thats 10 years. 

10 YEARS!!!

I know that in the scope of life, 10 years isn’t a lot, but to think of the fact that I will be in debt, 10s of thousands in debt for the next ten years. Plus I’ll have a mortgage in that ten years. 

It terrifies me, it puts a knot in my stomach, a lump in my throat. 

Words of encouragement?

I have bumped into your car while trying to paralell park.

Yes its true, I’m one of those chuckle fucks that will accidentally bump into someone’s car when I get home

from work at 2AM and really just reallly don’t want to park 4 blocks away from my building. Instead I take my recently repaired

car that is not a huge car but is by no means a lil bitty thing either. But I’ll be damned if I can’t squeeze that thing into a spot made for a KIA Spectra if I have to . It took me months before I could paralell park

in one shot. I’m from Jersey for cryin’ out loud, I paralell parked on my driving test and then never did it again.

However, I am not at all bothered by this action of mine any longer.  At first I was mortified and would get out and thoroughly inspect for damage to the violated vehicle. That is until I witnessed the following

A) Someone peeing on my car

B) Someone else bumping into my car

C) My tail light was broken due to the asshat with the SUV who sits by the front door of the building and waits for someone to move from their spot right in front of the building so that he may retrieve his giant SUV from wherever it was currently parked immediately and move it to directly in front of said building. And seriously I’ve never seen a fat man run so fast.

The final straw was in fact my tail light bein broken. At that point I stopped minding the un-offensive bump into the car in front of or behind me. I never do damage. And if I did I would hold myself accountable for it.

But until such a time. If you live in the Bronx, you might want to invest in this

Well I have my car back, $3,081.54 later. It might as well be a new car. The past week has been a roller coaster, a run down of the events you ask? Why sure…

Lost the apartment we desperately wanted

Car died, like 1ton paper weight died

Dog ate case of gatorade spewing red fruit punch flavored liquid everywhere

$3,081.54 car repair

I’m going on my 12 day of work.

Found an apartment we wanted

Signed a lease

My mother is getting sued for something she has nothing to do with.

Mr. Wonderful’s mother is back on her judge Judy kick.

Its a wonderful life…..

So that car, that I spent $700 on fixing about a month ago??? 

 Its toast. 

Thats right I said it.

Toast. The engine seized.

My 1999 Toyota Camry with only 83,000 miles on it. Is done.  

Oh and that apartment that we really really wanted? What happened to that you ask?The owner turned us down.Even with the offer of an extra deposit for the dog, and an additional rider in the leaser holding us solely responsible for any damage caused by the dog. 

He thinks the dog is going to pee everywhere. Which he won’t. He’s not like that, he’s a good dog. 

We really wanted that apartment.  

We’re moving!!! 

To Yonkers, NY.

Right now we live in the Bronx. About 2 blocks from the zoo, its a decent neighborhood, for where we are. And it was a good choice for the obstacles we had at the time. But now, we want something quiet, with grass and trees. Mr. Wonderful grew up in Suburbia and I grew up in the middle of the woods.

I always thought I would love living in the city. And I would probably like it a little bit more if we were closer to transportation, and we were in a better building. But this new place is gorgeous. It has 2 bedrooms, a living room, a separate dining room, a huuuuuuuge kitchen with more cabinets than I can fill, cedar closets, ceiling fans, french doors…. And it goes on. We are so excited.  

Trees and grass!!! 

Warning! I am about to toot my own horn.  I am rather efficient when it comes to completing projects I’m handed at work. Apparently a little too efficient. Chris over at Rude Cactus  asked what his readers normal days are like.My day is as followed 5:46 AM: Alarm goes off5:48AM: Grumble and get the hell out of bed.5:50AM: Make Chris and my lunches, eat breakfast6:20AM: Walk Black Jack, grumble about the five flights of stairs, drag Black Jack away from the Chihauha that taunts him every morning6:35AM-7:05AM: Try and get together everything Mr. Wonderful will need to start dinner since he gets home an hour before I do.7:10AM: Trick Black Jack into getting into his crate7:15AM-8:40AM: Walk to the subway–> Travel to Work 8:45AM: Get to work set up my computer9:00AM-9:30AM: Check e-mail, basecamp, blogs9:30AM-10AM: Field whatever menial task someone has thrown my way10Am: Get growled at when I am requesting something further to do, get given yet more menial, ten minutes tasks. 11AM:  Meeting12PM: Pretend to check my email1PM-Lunch1:30PM-Check the 50 e-mails I got while at lunch2PM: Return a bunch of phone calls3PM:Pretend to check email4PM-5PM: Try to rush through fixing all of the things that came up right before I get to leave for the day 5:05PM: Leave work6:15PM: Get Home6:30-7PM: Dinner and dishes7PM-Shower if we have hot water11PM: Go to bed  Lather, rinse, repeat 

Hello again,  I’d like to tell you all, that I am one of those people that willing hands over any uneaten food she might have to the guy/gal/child asking for it on the Subway.Now, I don’t do this as a way to get recognized as a good samaritan by the rest of the working class. I do it because really I like to. I realize that most of these people are lying, and I’ve seen the same people quite a few times. But in my heart of hearts I’d like to pretend that these people truly do need and appreciate what I am giving them.  I won’t give people money, it makes me feel like a sucker, and really i can barely afford my own life. But food, I’ll hand over.  So please people, check your eye rolls, stand clear of the closing doors and fork over a banana to the guy. Lordy

I am a coupon-aholic. Its true. I make a game out of it. And tonight at Target I got lots-o-dog food. For next to nothing 

     

Hello my name is Dani and I have a confession to make  (”Hi Dani!”) I am an over the shoulder newspaper reader.

Whenever I am on the subway, and lack something of my own to occupy my time, (and even when I do) I read your newspaper over your shoulder.

I read halves of articles about Hillary, Obama, the taxi-cab baby, the weather, the economy, what horse won the race, etc, etc, etc. And frankly I do it unabashedly.

Until you catch me doing it. 

At which point I quickly avert my eyes like a fourth grade boy caught staring at the girl he likes. I’m not sure why I do it. I could easily acquire my own newspaper, I.Just.Don’t. If I did though, I would be more likely to finish an entire article. Either the masses on the 2 train are either the fastest readers this side the Mississippi or I start reading so late in the game that, I will most likely be about 1/2 way through when the page gets turned. At which point I will purse  my lips and think to myself “Damn I wonder what happened to that old woman with the 93 cats, snakes, and lemurs.” I am an over the shoulder newspaper reader.  

 The ‘odd’ part about this, other than the obvious, is that I HATE when people look over my shoulder. I can’t stand it. It drives me up a wall.

That having been said, I really have no interest in stopping. I get my tidbits of information in a decent enough amount to at least contribute to lunch room conversation; “Hey did you hear about the building collapsing in Harlem?” and then I pray that no one asks for more information, since I had only gotten through a paragraph before the page was turned….