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State of me, well sort of, and weird free stuff to do that I'm not doing
It's been a rough two weeks. Came back from vacation and got ambushed at work - two audits, and three tough negotiations. And it's not over. Can't decide who is harder to negotiate with - the asses people internally or the external clients. Plus, being a female negotiator in an industry that is traditionally white male and the majority of positions are white male, has its challengers. Been in a lot of industries - I'm a walking encyclopedia of business/career choices - and have to say the only one that isn't "racist" and "sexist" is possibly government, although healthcare is a close second. And even those have their issues. Why is it that when people are given power they abuse it by hurting those who don't? Not always, but the vast majority of the time.
Anyhow, by Friday, I felt like I'd been hit by a bus metaphorically speaking - and commuting to and from downtown Jamaica, Queens - that ain't no joke. It's basically bus obstacle course out-there. Pedesterians beware. Those city buses actually want to hit you. So, tired, offighting negotiating with folks. Also my brain hurts from making it do math. I hate math. Dadster told Momster this week that their daughter (yours truly) had managed to teach herself math over the last 10-14 years. It's true - I did not learn how to do this in school. The American Education System's idea of teaching math is basically making you memorize multiplication tables, and base number patterns, along with formulas. They don't really explain it or its application. They just write the formula on the board and tell you to memorize it, which is hell if you are dyslexic and automatically transpose numbers. The American Education System relies far too heavily on memorization for its own good - it is why we are lagging behind and doing so poorly. Memorization is for parrots. It may have changed, but I doubt it. Everything I know in regards to Math? I taught myself or a friend pointed out to me along the way. Have to say, I adore excel and calculators, also colleagues who are brilliant mathematicians (although the problem with most brilliant mathematicians is they can't communicate how the heck they figured it out. In short they don't know how to translate math into basic English. He increased it exponentially. Okay, again, in English? That was English. No, that was math speak. Yet, for pleasure they can't read anything beyond Twilight. Methinks the brain can only handle so much without exploding. You are either brilliant at math and abstract concepts or you are brilliant at metaphor, words, creative ideas. Both? Your head explodes, with a few exceptions, because there are always exceptions.)
So am more or less relaxing today. Feel a bit guilty about it - considering there are so many things I could be doing instead on a lovely day that is 85 degrees. Been in the 90s with a comfort index of 100 the past couple of days, with high humidity, but no rain. It threatens, but nothing happens.
Weird things to do in NYC this summer:
*Ride a bike in the middle of Park Avenue and all the way down to the Strand. (Yes, they've closed the streets to cars for the next few weekends. Did it last year too.) You can also take a Yoga Class in the middle of the street in Times Square.
*Dumpster Pools. Swim in a Dumpster at Grand Central Station and along Park Avenue. Yes, we have Dumpster Pools, this is not a joke. They don't really look like Dumpsters. They showed them on NY1. You kidding? I haven't seen them - that would require getting off my behind and trucking into Manhattan and hunting about.
Too frigging lazy. Besides - it's basically the size of a large king size bathtub in a big red box, with concrete around it.
*Up until Mid-July - you could have played piano for free. Which was actually sort of cool. They set up as an art project, entitled Play for Hope or something like that, up-right pianos all over the city and five boroughs. There was even one in Rufus King Park in Jamaica, Queens. I was impressed. Listened to a guy play a Bach Concerto on it one day during lunch in June, when the weather was still halfway pleasant. Usually these things are reserved for Manhattan. (Tourists think Manhattan is NYC. Uh no. NYC is Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island, Queens, and Brooklyn - otherwise known as the five boroughs. Brooklyn is actually the largest, followed next by Queens. ) Saw one in Brooklyn too - but in the strangest place - it wasn't really in a nice park, it was in Fulton Mall, in a road that had been converted to a seating area, between a restaurant and the another big building. It was painted all sorts of pretty colors. After about six weeks of playing the piano for free on these things, the pianos were removed and donated to area schools and community centers.
*Kayak for Free either in Brooklyn, at the Boathouse, along the East River, or from the Chelsea Piers along the Hudson river. Yes, I kid you not - it is allegedly for free. CW and I keep meaning to do it, but obviously we don't want to bad enough. Kayaking is frigging hard and it requires gear - like waterproof shows and crap like that. Plus I have to lug my lazy ass over there.
* See a Free Professionally acted and directed Shakespeare Play in Central Park (you can see the amateur variety for free at Carroll Park in Brooklyn - they are doing Romeo and Juliet and casting high school kids) - there's two of them, one is the Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino, which while tempting - requires a six hour squat in the park for tickets, and a getting there sometime around 5 am on a Sat morning, because you know it's going to be popular. It's frigging Al Pacino! And two other tv actors - one is from Modern Family, the skinny red head with the beard married to the adorable heavy set guy, and the other is from Law and Order and Rent. You have to work for those free tickets, people! The other one, which actually interests me more because I've never seen it or read it - is A Winter's Tale. Don't know if they are doing a musical this year.
If you can't do that and are free at 12:30 noon on Thursday, head off to Bryant Park and watch Broadway perform. They also do Good Morning America concerts around 7am - I think they even had Lady Gaga this year. (Used to see them doing this all the time, when I worked over there - briefly. The best locals in the city - I only got to work at briefly, while the worste locals I appear to be at forever. It's a thing.)
*And...if you are into live music (I'm not, but some folks are) - there's The Lilith Fair in NJ, basically an all female rock musician/folk outdoor concert - headed by Sarah McLachlan. Also, the headbanger concert on Groversor Island. Prospect Park Summer Stage. Central Park Summer Stage. Lincoln Center Summer Stage.
* See an outdoor movie on either a roof-top, or in Bryant Park or under the Brooklyn Bridge in that park or up in Astoria Park. There's numerous venues. The roof-top ones are by word of mouth or via meetup groups. They include cocktails usually. And are usually obscure indie films that never make it to theaters or do, but rarely stay long or are really old. Bryant Park's are old classics that you can see on TCM. I'd do it - but they are always on weeknights - specifically Monday's and uh, don't people work??
*Venture into and tour the old subway tunnels under Atlantic Avenue. We have tours of the historic subway channels that aren't being used - usually on Saturdays. People line up and climb down a ladder through a manhole with a tour guide to explore these caverns and tunnels. (Personally this is a bit too much like what I have to do at work to be all that appealing to me. But whatever floats your boat.) And yes, it is free. One online group actually watched the Lost season finale in these tunnels, I kid you not.
Oh and countless street fairs. This city is a haven for parades and street fairs.
Come to think of it the last three or four items aren't that weird.
If you are bored and can't find anything to do in NYC - then you are lazy and not trying that hard. Being broke? So not an excuse.
Anyhow, by Friday, I felt like I'd been hit by a bus metaphorically speaking - and commuting to and from downtown Jamaica, Queens - that ain't no joke. It's basically bus obstacle course out-there. Pedesterians beware. Those city buses actually want to hit you. So, tired, of
So am more or less relaxing today. Feel a bit guilty about it - considering there are so many things I could be doing instead on a lovely day that is 85 degrees. Been in the 90s with a comfort index of 100 the past couple of days, with high humidity, but no rain. It threatens, but nothing happens.
Weird things to do in NYC this summer:
*Ride a bike in the middle of Park Avenue and all the way down to the Strand. (Yes, they've closed the streets to cars for the next few weekends. Did it last year too.) You can also take a Yoga Class in the middle of the street in Times Square.
*Dumpster Pools. Swim in a Dumpster at Grand Central Station and along Park Avenue. Yes, we have Dumpster Pools, this is not a joke. They don't really look like Dumpsters. They showed them on NY1. You kidding? I haven't seen them - that would require getting off my behind and trucking into Manhattan and hunting about.
Too frigging lazy. Besides - it's basically the size of a large king size bathtub in a big red box, with concrete around it.
*Up until Mid-July - you could have played piano for free. Which was actually sort of cool. They set up as an art project, entitled Play for Hope or something like that, up-right pianos all over the city and five boroughs. There was even one in Rufus King Park in Jamaica, Queens. I was impressed. Listened to a guy play a Bach Concerto on it one day during lunch in June, when the weather was still halfway pleasant. Usually these things are reserved for Manhattan. (Tourists think Manhattan is NYC. Uh no. NYC is Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island, Queens, and Brooklyn - otherwise known as the five boroughs. Brooklyn is actually the largest, followed next by Queens. ) Saw one in Brooklyn too - but in the strangest place - it wasn't really in a nice park, it was in Fulton Mall, in a road that had been converted to a seating area, between a restaurant and the another big building. It was painted all sorts of pretty colors. After about six weeks of playing the piano for free on these things, the pianos were removed and donated to area schools and community centers.
*Kayak for Free either in Brooklyn, at the Boathouse, along the East River, or from the Chelsea Piers along the Hudson river. Yes, I kid you not - it is allegedly for free. CW and I keep meaning to do it, but obviously we don't want to bad enough. Kayaking is frigging hard and it requires gear - like waterproof shows and crap like that. Plus I have to lug my lazy ass over there.
* See a Free Professionally acted and directed Shakespeare Play in Central Park (you can see the amateur variety for free at Carroll Park in Brooklyn - they are doing Romeo and Juliet and casting high school kids) - there's two of them, one is the Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino, which while tempting - requires a six hour squat in the park for tickets, and a getting there sometime around 5 am on a Sat morning, because you know it's going to be popular. It's frigging Al Pacino! And two other tv actors - one is from Modern Family, the skinny red head with the beard married to the adorable heavy set guy, and the other is from Law and Order and Rent. You have to work for those free tickets, people! The other one, which actually interests me more because I've never seen it or read it - is A Winter's Tale. Don't know if they are doing a musical this year.
If you can't do that and are free at 12:30 noon on Thursday, head off to Bryant Park and watch Broadway perform. They also do Good Morning America concerts around 7am - I think they even had Lady Gaga this year. (Used to see them doing this all the time, when I worked over there - briefly. The best locals in the city - I only got to work at briefly, while the worste locals I appear to be at forever. It's a thing.)
*And...if you are into live music (I'm not, but some folks are) - there's The Lilith Fair in NJ, basically an all female rock musician/folk outdoor concert - headed by Sarah McLachlan. Also, the headbanger concert on Groversor Island. Prospect Park Summer Stage. Central Park Summer Stage. Lincoln Center Summer Stage.
* See an outdoor movie on either a roof-top, or in Bryant Park or under the Brooklyn Bridge in that park or up in Astoria Park. There's numerous venues. The roof-top ones are by word of mouth or via meetup groups. They include cocktails usually. And are usually obscure indie films that never make it to theaters or do, but rarely stay long or are really old. Bryant Park's are old classics that you can see on TCM. I'd do it - but they are always on weeknights - specifically Monday's and uh, don't people work??
*Venture into and tour the old subway tunnels under Atlantic Avenue. We have tours of the historic subway channels that aren't being used - usually on Saturdays. People line up and climb down a ladder through a manhole with a tour guide to explore these caverns and tunnels. (Personally this is a bit too much like what I have to do at work to be all that appealing to me. But whatever floats your boat.) And yes, it is free. One online group actually watched the Lost season finale in these tunnels, I kid you not.
Oh and countless street fairs. This city is a haven for parades and street fairs.
Come to think of it the last three or four items aren't that weird.
If you are bored and can't find anything to do in NYC - then you are lazy and not trying that hard. Being broke? So not an excuse.