This poke shop near tribeca was advertising that they’re giving out free toilet paper with every purchase and I thought that was so dark and apocalyptic. And also a good deal.
Tag: nyny
Quarantine, cashier life & pinatas
Hi! I am the worst at having a blog.
My life has changed drastically just like literally all of ours. I usually work three jobs, my main job is a full-time nanny and then I have my cleaning business and I work as an assistant wedding planner. Of course, all three of these jobs stopped existing in the face of this pandemic and for a very terrifying week, I was unemployed. Then I sat down at my kitchen table with a coffee or cocktail (it was my one week of unemployment to be fair) and applied to every single job that I thought might take a college drop out like me. I also dmed a few grocery stores because I thought they might be hiring asap and that was how I got the job of a cashier and the most expensive grocery store in the west village. This is a place that charges $8 for a brick of cafe bustelo and there’s a tomato sauce that costs $12.99 (shout out to Rao’s for apparently being THAT good). Of course, the pay minimum wage but I don’t have the type of savings that would allow for me to be unemployed for more than a week so I took the job.
My nannying job pays $25 an hour so the price drop has been a lot for me to deal with. It’s also been hard not knowing when/if my job will return. My nanny family moved from the west village to their beach house in New Jersey. At the beginning of the virus, they wanted me to travel there and stay for three days of the week and then go home. I did this for two weeks and then I had to stop because it felt very dangerous for an asthmatic like me to be traveling on the subway and the train all the time during a very deadly virus. The day I traveled home from NJ for the last time a stay in place order was issued and I couldn’t have been happier to be in home sweet Brooklyn and not NJ.
The grocery store job is as soul-sucking as you’d imagine. No one grows up saying they want to be a cashier and even if they did they’d take one look at the paycheck and change their mind. Most of my co-workers are nice. Some of them are snappy or up tight but it’s cause they’re miserable and I don’t blame them. When I’m at that job I’m miserable too. It’s hard to go through eight hours having the same stunted interactions with people. I ask the same questions to every person. “Hello, how are you? Do you have a store card? Do you want bags? Would you like to donate a bundle or milk to COVID relief?” The store I work for is doing a fundraiser for City Harvest which is well-intentioned but it’s so horrible to have to ask people for money during this time. They’ll say no and then pull out their ebt card and you feel like such a dick for asking them for money to feed other people when they’re struggling too. I always wish the store it’s self would donate money and leave their customers out of it.
Today was a good day though because I am trying to enjoy my life and make the very best of it all. At work in my shitty work uniform and same pair of black sneakers, I try to bring myself to the register as well by doing my makeup like I would and never coming to work in my uniform. I keep my polyester work shirt in my store locker and change into it at the last second so that I can feel like myself for as long as possible. Today was also a good day because I got out at 12:45 pm and when I walked out of the sliding doors the sun was shining and the birds were screaming their little snow-white heads off. I went home and fixed myself a drink (my new favorite: sunny d + lime juice + tequila + tajin) and got a facetime from an unknown number hung up on them. I then immediately realized it was a facetime interview I had scheduled for that time. I called her back and tried my best to show that I’m a very qualified hardworking nanny that’s good at what she does.
The highlight of my day was making a pinata. My family and I used to do this many times a year. We’d make them for my sisters and i’s birthday parties. I was out of practice but doing it brought back so many warm memories of happier and more than anything brighter easier times. The smell of the flour and water and feeling of the paste drying on my fingers was therapeutic. The biggest part of me wishes I had the money and privilege to be fully quarantined and staying home during this time. I would love to have the time to do all the wild and rather mundane fantasies I’ve had during my life of what I would do if I had time to figure out what I wanted to do. While sliding the wet pieces of newspaper on to the balloon, I was so focused on getting the job done that I wasn’t thinking about how I was going to make rent, about savings, about food and all the ways I am falling short. I was just focusing on this task that I had chosen to set in front of me not a bouquet of problems that was thrust into my face. It was nice to reach out to my childhood in this simple and fun way and to even if just for a half-hour, to think about something different.
Now I have to wait a few days until this first layer of paper mache fully dries and then I’ll add a second layer. Then I’ll stop being cheap and pull the trigger and buy some paint. And then the hardest part for me comes. Trying to be artistic and painting something on it.
Question: Are you the type of person with enough patience for puzzles?
I for sure, am not.
Also, have you done any arts and crafts during the pandemic? I would love to hear what you’ve been making 🙂
Pandemic in NYC: #4
This is a picture of me finally with my hair down at the end of a long workday. I work at a Grocery store in manhattan. These are our dingey lockers where we keep our pens (they get stolen if we leave them on our registers) and our sad little lunches. You can see my seltzer hanging from my bag. I like this picture cause my eyelashes look as dramatic as I feel and because the angry skeleton represents how I feel about this new job that I’m working for minimum wage. I feel angry and dead. lol cheers!
Pandemic in NYC: #3
This is a very basic photo of the subway and a poster advertising the democratic primary. This was a little sad for me to see as New York’s Democratic primary was canceled due to the virus. I was planning on voting for Bernie Sander’s in the NYC primary and he was going to still be on the ballot even though he had suspended his campaign. I was going to still give him my vote (probably for the last time).
April Favorites
This is gonna be the pandemic issue. This was the month that my staying at home and having free time ended and I’m gonna list all the things that made my short and sweet quarentine enjoyable.
Schitt’s Creek (on Netflix): This show has character. It’s a good show for people who liked Parks and Rec and Kimmy Schmidt. It’s about a very wealthy family who suddenly loses it all and it’s a comdeny. It gives me the warm and fuzzies and during this extremely stressful time it has been the perfect show for me to watch before bed so that I can try and have sweet dreams instead of stress dreams. I love how unique each character is and how they all have very distinct mannerisms and personalities. This show is so charming and fun and funny. It’s a delight.
$5.99
Our sink area is right under out cabinets and it’s really dark under there. This little light completely fixed the problem. And it’s cute, bright and cheap. All you have to do to install it is put in the batteries and attach the velcro that comes with it.
Pita chips and tzatziki: a perfect refreshing snack
Jump roping: Fun, easy and burns energy and calories. I hate working out so this is a nice alternative for me cause it’s cardio but not running.
Side note: does anyone with bigger boobs have any sports bra recommendations? I’m tired of wearing two sports bras to jump rope and cutting off the circulation to my body from the boobs up.
Foaming hand wash: It’s just so much more fun than regular hand wash. I love the bath and body works hand washes and am currently using the aromatherapy one. Believe it or not the scent of this hand wash gets me compliments from my friends when they’re over (when I was allowed to see my friends pre virus… seems so long ago)
$36.99
I love this blanket because the color is comforting and it’s lightweight and also heavy enough to be a cuddly comfort. I hope that makes sense (at least a little bit lol).
$12.99
I may have already written about this but these are hella cheap, hella cute and actually do help with my screen related headaches.
Wrong bitch to hit with your cane :/
Y’all just finished cursing someone out. I stopped for one seconds for my asthmatic lungs to be ok and not think they’re dying after I walked out of the stairs of the subway. In this few second period of me huffing and puffing some crusty pervy looking 50 yr old man w a cane approached me and I couldn’t so I POLITELY said I’m sorry I have to catch my train and started to walk away and this man hit my ankle with his cane….. sheesh. I blacked on this man. I was just getting my breath back from the stairs (I’m the most ancient 22 yr old you ever did see) and used all that breath to unload on him. “You can not be hitting people with you mother fucking cane” and lots more heavily cursed words but I never remember what I said when I really curse someone out. For the first split second after he hit me he seemed to come forward and kept smiling a deranged smile and me but then I got louder and really committed to it and leaned all the way in in a way only anger management girls like me can and he didn’t get a word it and stopped moving.
I was having a really weird really hard really stressful day. I don’t know if my dads cancer is back or if he has diabetes and my employees keep trying to talk politics with me (which I think is really inappropriate) and I works 15 hours or something ridiculous (I’m too tired to do the math).
My favorite nyc meal
This sadly (unhealthy af) and happily (delicious af) is my most commonly eaten meal. What’s your most commonly eaten meal and what does it say about you? Mine says that I’m cheap and lazy as fuck and also that I believe more is more when it comes to pizza.
The Blue Novella 