1. One of my beautiful/terrifying bosses at the chocolate mecca told me I had made him the best Milk Chocolat he had ever tasted in said establishment. My face got hot and I had to take deep breaths, as this was as bold (coming from a man that first told me that he would send his drinks back until they were passable, and to whom "Not bad" is his version of "Excellent" ) as him asking me to marry him.
2. I was late to work (again) at the bakery on Saturday, and as I sat on the train running deep into Brooklyn, all I could think of was how I was going to get fired, and how I wouldn't be able to say anything other than, "Yes, I understand. I am much more trouble than I am worth." Turns out, the first thing my boss did when I got there was ask me if I would join her family for Thanksgiving dinner. This is the opposite of getting fired.
3. I'm going to start training tomorrow to be an expeditor. This means more responsibility without a raise in pay, and more waiters spending time hating me. I am, however, kind of excited. I like the idea of being the captain of this particular (sometimes sinking) ship.
Also, a simple delight: I've started making friends. The real kind you hang out with when you're not working. I didn't think I would ever have time for such a thing, but even half hour lunch breaks can prove useful in this endeavor. I'm starting to feel like I have a place in this dirty, pretty city.
13 November 2006
10 November 2006
Chocolate Is Good For You
Now, usually I am not really in a position to consume the massive quantities of chocolate that I handle each week. Eating behind the bar is completely forbidden, and the only time desserts are free for employees is when they are either 1. broken or 2. a mistake. So, my chocolate consumption is basically limited to drinks that I make when no one is paying attention to me. Tonight, though, I got to try three of the big sellers, due to some training session I didn't particularly understand, and DAMN do we make fine desserts. I was taking my dinner break at the time, and any attention I might have paid to my chicken sandwich was given over to bites of a hazelnut praline and chocolate crepe, a "Munchies" waffle (sweet waffles with whipped cream, toasted hazelnuts, ice cream, and chocolate coated wheat balls), and "Mess" (chocolate sponge cake, chocolate ganosh, ice cream, whipped cream, milk chocolate chunks and sprinkles). I realized what a blessing it is that we don't have access to these desserts on a regular basis, because our staff is shockingly attractive and fit across the board, and I'm certain this wouldn't stay the case for long if it weren't for strict consumption rules.
In a few weeks, before they open the new store, they're having an open house for employees at which we can order anything we want, and nurse it for hours, if we so desire. I've hatched a plan with one of my favorite co-workers to first get extremely intoxicated pre-soiree, then to order one Banana Mess and one Strawberry Mess (enough to feed 8-12 people), stay for as many hours as it takes to eat every last bite, and find someone who will care for us during the food coma that will follow.
I'm thinking of fasting in preparation.
In a few weeks, before they open the new store, they're having an open house for employees at which we can order anything we want, and nurse it for hours, if we so desire. I've hatched a plan with one of my favorite co-workers to first get extremely intoxicated pre-soiree, then to order one Banana Mess and one Strawberry Mess (enough to feed 8-12 people), stay for as many hours as it takes to eat every last bite, and find someone who will care for us during the food coma that will follow.
I'm thinking of fasting in preparation.
02 November 2006
"Ah, It Comes and Goes, Comes and Goes."
Okay, I've neglected my duties as a New York City Blogger for over a month now, a fact which was brought to my attention just enough times by groups spanning just enough geographical space for me to realize that if people are reading, then I should be writing. So, while my laundry spins to the sounds of Univision at the laundromat around the corner, I will be sipping a Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale and filling in some gaps.
Job Update:
I work 'til the wee hours in the land of chocolate. I am trained to dress waffles, crepes, and other chocolate goodies, as well as making frozen drinks, hot drinks (my favorite. . .I get to do extra hot drink training next week because I show promise, or something similar), register, and take-out. I, along with my fellows behind the bar, make uncomfortably less than the waitstaff for many hours of hard work, but we're surviving. The pressure is always on, and the turn-over rate is kind of insane. I, however, am sticking it out and enjoying getting to know all of my ridiculously beautiful co-workers. In a few weeks, they're opening a second location a mere block from the Ontological, and I have yet to hear whether or not I'm going to be transfered. I have heard, though, that I was being fought over by the bar managers of each; yay, job security! I leave everyday covered in crusty chocolate.
Also, I still work on Saturdays at a bakery in Brooklyn. This makes life complicated, but my boss asks me about my internship and my mother, so I've grown attached to her, and can't imagine quitting. Also, they haven't fired me even though I've been late for 4 out of my last 5 shifts, all for totally unrelated reasons. I think that my boss's husband would enjoy firing me, but my boss won't let him. Heh.
OHT Update:
I'm an ASM, so I take blocking notes (and occassionally notes for Richard) three days a week at rehearsal. Used to be four, but we had some interns quit, so schedules got shifted and I got moved to an extra night of tech. Seeing Richard work never ceases to be a kick in the pants- he works his way through the show, then goes back to the beginning and keeps a few elements but basically changes the whole thing. He will often say outloud, "Well. That's stupid." Most used sentence opener: "I'm concerned that. . ." usually having to do with the stability of props. The new ending, as of yesterday, involves shackles and dancing parachutes. We'll have to see exactly how long that lasts.
Rehearsals are Tuesday through Sunday, 10-4:30. Tech is Sunday through Friday, 5-9, with a full day on Monday. Interns do about seven shifts a week, split between the two. Tech shifts are used to accomplish the notes that Richard gives after rehearsal, to further develop/create costumes, props, and scenic elements. Initially, I thought that I would just kind of grit-my-teeth-and-bear-it through tech shifts, using rehearsals as the bulk of my learning process. It turns out, though, that I while watching Richard work is bizarre and amazing, I often have very little to do during rehearsals, especially when he's messing with lighting. Not being actively involved sometimes makes it hard to be completely engaged in what's going on. During tech, on the other hand, there is always something to get done, and the work is continuously shifting and growing. I get to put into play all of the random skills I learned in production classes in college, as well as traverse the city in search of materials ranging from mundane (dry wall screws, black elastic) to complicated (4-wire cables) to utterly bizarre (shackles). I am consistantly delighted to be working with my superiors (Peter, Megan, Brendan, and Shannon), as well as my intern cohorts.
I realize that watching the show develop makes it hard for me to keep a grip on what the overall product will evoke, or be 'about' as it were. The themes running through expand and contract, but don't disappear completely, since the video that Richard is working with is in itself a static entity, not subject to a change in content; so, too, are the data banks of voice tapes that Richard has on file. However, the eventual combination of elements could become anything, and we won't know what that is for a long time. What I am looking forward to, in the distant future, is viewing the finished product with people who don't carrywith them the history that I will have, the history of the development, and discussing what they experience in comparison to what I know and see. So, come to New York, fine friends, and we'll have an extravaganza.
If anyone is interested, there's a live podcast of rehearsal every Wednesday at Free103point9.org from 10-4:30 EST, and we have a blog available for your perusal at http://www.wakeupmrsleepy.blogspot.com .
Physical Negligence Update:
1. My second day at the Ontological, I almost got a concussion. I was cutting wood on the chop saw, and when I finished, promptly stood up into the steel stairs to the dimmer room. I immediately had a walnut sized goose egg on my forehead, and had to spend an hour in the production office, icing my head and making sure I didn't vomit. Perks: the swelling went down by the time I went to bed, and I got to hear about every theatre related injury ever sustained by the TD.
2. I have cut both my left hand on the knuckle and my right on my index finger tip while cleaning the meat slicer at the bakery.
3. I sustained a long thin burn on my left arm last Friday on a pizza pan.
4. While not initially painful, I warded off the advances of a Ukranian man on the train on Halloween night by vomiting the entire contents of my stomach (cream of spinach soup, chicken wrap, whiskey and water, orange cosmopolitan, etc.) into my purse. Totally disgusting, I know, but please picture me on the train, one minute trying not to have a conversation with a 35-year-old Ukranian, the next making every effort not to throw up, giving up that effort, throwing up into my bag, excusing myself, getting off the train a stop early, and walking the rest of the way home. Now, that's comedy. The pain, of course, came the next morning/day with the raging, equalibrium-busting hangover that I suffered during rehearsal. Oh, Trashy New York can be so entertaining.
Tomorrow morning I am waking up early to help one of the other interns shoot some footage for an experimental film he's making. On that note, this will have to be all for now, but there will be more to come, in a timely fashion.
All the best from Brooklyn!
Job Update:
I work 'til the wee hours in the land of chocolate. I am trained to dress waffles, crepes, and other chocolate goodies, as well as making frozen drinks, hot drinks (my favorite. . .I get to do extra hot drink training next week because I show promise, or something similar), register, and take-out. I, along with my fellows behind the bar, make uncomfortably less than the waitstaff for many hours of hard work, but we're surviving. The pressure is always on, and the turn-over rate is kind of insane. I, however, am sticking it out and enjoying getting to know all of my ridiculously beautiful co-workers. In a few weeks, they're opening a second location a mere block from the Ontological, and I have yet to hear whether or not I'm going to be transfered. I have heard, though, that I was being fought over by the bar managers of each; yay, job security! I leave everyday covered in crusty chocolate.
Also, I still work on Saturdays at a bakery in Brooklyn. This makes life complicated, but my boss asks me about my internship and my mother, so I've grown attached to her, and can't imagine quitting. Also, they haven't fired me even though I've been late for 4 out of my last 5 shifts, all for totally unrelated reasons. I think that my boss's husband would enjoy firing me, but my boss won't let him. Heh.
OHT Update:
I'm an ASM, so I take blocking notes (and occassionally notes for Richard) three days a week at rehearsal. Used to be four, but we had some interns quit, so schedules got shifted and I got moved to an extra night of tech. Seeing Richard work never ceases to be a kick in the pants- he works his way through the show, then goes back to the beginning and keeps a few elements but basically changes the whole thing. He will often say outloud, "Well. That's stupid." Most used sentence opener: "I'm concerned that. . ." usually having to do with the stability of props. The new ending, as of yesterday, involves shackles and dancing parachutes. We'll have to see exactly how long that lasts.
Rehearsals are Tuesday through Sunday, 10-4:30. Tech is Sunday through Friday, 5-9, with a full day on Monday. Interns do about seven shifts a week, split between the two. Tech shifts are used to accomplish the notes that Richard gives after rehearsal, to further develop/create costumes, props, and scenic elements. Initially, I thought that I would just kind of grit-my-teeth-and-bear-it through tech shifts, using rehearsals as the bulk of my learning process. It turns out, though, that I while watching Richard work is bizarre and amazing, I often have very little to do during rehearsals, especially when he's messing with lighting. Not being actively involved sometimes makes it hard to be completely engaged in what's going on. During tech, on the other hand, there is always something to get done, and the work is continuously shifting and growing. I get to put into play all of the random skills I learned in production classes in college, as well as traverse the city in search of materials ranging from mundane (dry wall screws, black elastic) to complicated (4-wire cables) to utterly bizarre (shackles). I am consistantly delighted to be working with my superiors (Peter, Megan, Brendan, and Shannon), as well as my intern cohorts.
I realize that watching the show develop makes it hard for me to keep a grip on what the overall product will evoke, or be 'about' as it were. The themes running through expand and contract, but don't disappear completely, since the video that Richard is working with is in itself a static entity, not subject to a change in content; so, too, are the data banks of voice tapes that Richard has on file. However, the eventual combination of elements could become anything, and we won't know what that is for a long time. What I am looking forward to, in the distant future, is viewing the finished product with people who don't carrywith them the history that I will have, the history of the development, and discussing what they experience in comparison to what I know and see. So, come to New York, fine friends, and we'll have an extravaganza.
If anyone is interested, there's a live podcast of rehearsal every Wednesday at Free103point9.org from 10-4:30 EST, and we have a blog available for your perusal at http://www.wakeupmrsleepy.blogspot.com .
Physical Negligence Update:
1. My second day at the Ontological, I almost got a concussion. I was cutting wood on the chop saw, and when I finished, promptly stood up into the steel stairs to the dimmer room. I immediately had a walnut sized goose egg on my forehead, and had to spend an hour in the production office, icing my head and making sure I didn't vomit. Perks: the swelling went down by the time I went to bed, and I got to hear about every theatre related injury ever sustained by the TD.
2. I have cut both my left hand on the knuckle and my right on my index finger tip while cleaning the meat slicer at the bakery.
3. I sustained a long thin burn on my left arm last Friday on a pizza pan.
4. While not initially painful, I warded off the advances of a Ukranian man on the train on Halloween night by vomiting the entire contents of my stomach (cream of spinach soup, chicken wrap, whiskey and water, orange cosmopolitan, etc.) into my purse. Totally disgusting, I know, but please picture me on the train, one minute trying not to have a conversation with a 35-year-old Ukranian, the next making every effort not to throw up, giving up that effort, throwing up into my bag, excusing myself, getting off the train a stop early, and walking the rest of the way home. Now, that's comedy. The pain, of course, came the next morning/day with the raging, equalibrium-busting hangover that I suffered during rehearsal. Oh, Trashy New York can be so entertaining.
Tomorrow morning I am waking up early to help one of the other interns shoot some footage for an experimental film he's making. On that note, this will have to be all for now, but there will be more to come, in a timely fashion.
All the best from Brooklyn!
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