About New York.
There is very little, but without a doubt what I miss the most is the subway. Weird right? You regularly see rats and the smells leave something to be desired and people are pushy...but I just love the trains.
It was so freeing not having a car, never having to worry about parking, or gas, or getting you picture taken by the monitoring cameras and receiving a ticket in the mail months after the offense. None of that. Plus everyone was on the same playing field, because (with the exception of a select few) everyone takes the train.
When I take public transportation I feel like I am a good person. I am not contributing to excess emissions, I am lowering my carbon footprint, I get to log in valuable people watching hours. But here in Chicago the train and bus system leave something to be desired.
Yes it is absolutely possible to get by without a car here and I know plenty that do, but having a car just makes life easier. The difference is there literally isn't anyplace you can't get to on the island of Manhattan by train. In chi-town there are entire neighborhoods that aren't accessible via train. If you live in Andersonville and your friend lives in Wicker Park you can't hope on the El unless you want to travel all the way into the loop and back out again. It just wasn't created with the same accessibility that the NY Subways have.
On top of that Chicago trains are smaller, slower and come less frequently than the subway trains. It's a bummer and as a proud "Chicagoan" I hate to give one point over to the Yankees, but I have to admit: New York, you've got us on this one.
That's ok though, I happen to think that we have better pizza AND hot dogs. How bout them apples?
Showing posts with label Chicago vs New York. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chicago vs New York. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Gotta make that cash...
So there has been a bit of silence over here in my little blog space as of late. Admittedly I have not been doing my part in carving out blogging time, but I also embarked on a little journey out west and I have been catching up a bit since my return. No I wasn't in search of gold, but rather fufilling my bridesmaidel duties in a Salt Lake City wedding. 2010 may be the year of the Tiger, but for me it just may have to be dubbed "The Year of Weddings." I have seven which I will be called to attend, and I hope to make it to all, but that remains to be seen.
Where was Jürgen you might ask? Well he was not with me, no sir he got to fly the skies to Argentina! Buenos Aires to be precise, where he got to stay in this swanky hotel, eat steak and dance upon the same soil from which my favorite grapes are grown! What's up with that?
Actually, his reasons for travel were purely professional (although he got to experience a fair amount of fun as well!), because Jürg booked himself a commercial! Can I get a what-what?? He auditioned in New York, for an Irish Celluar company commercial which filmed in South America. If you wish to spend time making sense of that, be my guest.
It did get me thinking about how funny and wildly unpredictable life can be from time to time, espically if you choose a profession in the arts. One minute you can be serving burgers and fries at a tourist packed, time square restaurant, and the next minute you are a working actor in Buenos Aires. Well, in Jürgens case anyway. It also reminded me of the array of various "jobs" I have had over the years in an attempt to cobble together a living. So let's bring back the blogging with a little sharing, shall we?
-I had my first "real job" when I was 16, where I worked at a small flower shop in Louisville, KY. I was too short to see over the counter, and was often left alone to my own devices. The job was relativley harmless except for two incidents which are worth mentioning:
1) I had literally just received my drivers liscense and on my first day of work they sent me out to make a delivery that involved me taking the expressway-a system I was unfamilliar with at the time- and I ended up somewhere way outside of the city limits, at night with no idea where I was. This also happened to be before the time when we really relied on cell phones (I feel old!), and "car phone" that I did have was totally dead. Hours later I made my way home and dissolved into a puddle of tears in my kitchen, because I never was able to deliver the flowers and the arangement and been tossed all over the back of my car. The next morning my mom and I went to a more established flower shop and had them re-do the entire thing and she drove me to the rightful recipients who were very understanding.
2) The owner of the shop was my friends mom, and while she was a lovely, fun, artsitic woman she really had no business being the owner of a business. Oftentimes there were no records of how much a given item cost, which meant during the times I was left to my own devices I was forced to make up the price of things. Not being well versed in the expenses of horticulture I inevitably charged a very lucky lady a mere seven dollars for a beautiful hanging fern. For the record it should have been around twenty-five.
The little flower shop closed a few years later. I'm just sayin'
-During college I spent a summer working as an intern for the Lookingglass Theatre Company, which paid me nothing, but I did get to work as the assistant to David Schwimmer for a week, which involved videotaping a workshop he ran and getting him coffee. He was very nice and very humble. However Lookingglass then proceeded to hire me off and on as a "door watcher" (I prefered the title "securty guard but what can you do) where I made a great hourly wage to sit at the front desk while performances were happing in their rehearsal space and make sure no riff-raff strolled in and made off with the office equipment. As if my tiny self could have done anything about it, but I took their money anyway. It was awesome.
- I have only onced worked in a restaurant, as a host, at a Tapas restauarant one summer in Chicago. I ate a ton of queso de cabra and very quickly decided I never wanted to work in restaurants again, for the mere fact that I found it rather torturous to watch other people enjoying their food and I had to starve.
-The job to have while attending Theatre School was to be hired as an usher when rental productions would use our space. It was great pay for maybe 15 minutes of mindless work, after which you could enjoy the show, or engage in epic battles with your flashlight. Juvenile, but fantastic.
-I have been babysitting since I was twelve, and still do every now and then. The first child I ever babysat is now an adult and on her way to being a huge star, however there is also one baby who I have sat for at least five times and still have yet to meet. Her name is Macy and she goes to sleep at 7pm, and never wakes. She is a gift from above.
-Once I was hired through my agency to work at the NeoCon trade show at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. It's a huge event focusing on office furniture, and my job was to pass out pins and candy to passerby's and encourage them to find their "style ID" on the 8th floor. Why you need to know your style when it comes to cubicles I will never know. It was so horrible that I hid in stairways and behind model kitchen units, in an attempt to keep my sanity. Never again.
-Being hired to perform at the Chicago Auto Show is much less annoying. I sang "Let the Sunshine In" with a group of incredibly talented Chicago actors, for the launch of a new line of KIA cars. We each wore a different solid colored crewneck sweater from Lands End, and threw our hands in the air with great abandon. In a word: queer. In another word: amazing.
-For two years I worked as a receptionist at a commercial photography studio that threw incredible parties and didn't mind if I drank alcohol while working. A privledge I never took full advantage of.
-One day while working at the aformentioned phtography studio, the producer asked to see my hands, which apparently are photograph worthy and whisked me upstairs to feature my digits in a cataloge. This gave me the courage to call up the print department in my agency to see if I could be seen as a parts model. My agent said "its a very quick decision and is usually a no, but I will see you." Luckily, he said yes, and every now and then I literally make money from my hands.
-After I graduated college I spent a couple years working as the front desk manager of a spa, which once I left I swore I would never revisit customer service ever again. Well "never say never" apparently, because once I decided to move to NYC I contacted the New York branch, and five minutes later I was rehired. Lesson learned: its a good thing to keep the bridges you build intact.
-Finally, this is without a doubt the best job I have ever had (aside from special theatre gigs) only involved twenty minutes of actual work, but was oh so very cool to be a part of.
Have you had any special/scary/random/interesting jobs you have had to do to make ends meet?
Where was Jürgen you might ask? Well he was not with me, no sir he got to fly the skies to Argentina! Buenos Aires to be precise, where he got to stay in this swanky hotel, eat steak and dance upon the same soil from which my favorite grapes are grown! What's up with that?
Actually, his reasons for travel were purely professional (although he got to experience a fair amount of fun as well!), because Jürg booked himself a commercial! Can I get a what-what?? He auditioned in New York, for an Irish Celluar company commercial which filmed in South America. If you wish to spend time making sense of that, be my guest.
It did get me thinking about how funny and wildly unpredictable life can be from time to time, espically if you choose a profession in the arts. One minute you can be serving burgers and fries at a tourist packed, time square restaurant, and the next minute you are a working actor in Buenos Aires. Well, in Jürgens case anyway. It also reminded me of the array of various "jobs" I have had over the years in an attempt to cobble together a living. So let's bring back the blogging with a little sharing, shall we?
-I had my first "real job" when I was 16, where I worked at a small flower shop in Louisville, KY. I was too short to see over the counter, and was often left alone to my own devices. The job was relativley harmless except for two incidents which are worth mentioning:
1) I had literally just received my drivers liscense and on my first day of work they sent me out to make a delivery that involved me taking the expressway-a system I was unfamilliar with at the time- and I ended up somewhere way outside of the city limits, at night with no idea where I was. This also happened to be before the time when we really relied on cell phones (I feel old!), and "car phone" that I did have was totally dead. Hours later I made my way home and dissolved into a puddle of tears in my kitchen, because I never was able to deliver the flowers and the arangement and been tossed all over the back of my car. The next morning my mom and I went to a more established flower shop and had them re-do the entire thing and she drove me to the rightful recipients who were very understanding.
2) The owner of the shop was my friends mom, and while she was a lovely, fun, artsitic woman she really had no business being the owner of a business. Oftentimes there were no records of how much a given item cost, which meant during the times I was left to my own devices I was forced to make up the price of things. Not being well versed in the expenses of horticulture I inevitably charged a very lucky lady a mere seven dollars for a beautiful hanging fern. For the record it should have been around twenty-five.
The little flower shop closed a few years later. I'm just sayin'
-During college I spent a summer working as an intern for the Lookingglass Theatre Company, which paid me nothing, but I did get to work as the assistant to David Schwimmer for a week, which involved videotaping a workshop he ran and getting him coffee. He was very nice and very humble. However Lookingglass then proceeded to hire me off and on as a "door watcher" (I prefered the title "securty guard but what can you do) where I made a great hourly wage to sit at the front desk while performances were happing in their rehearsal space and make sure no riff-raff strolled in and made off with the office equipment. As if my tiny self could have done anything about it, but I took their money anyway. It was awesome.
- I have only onced worked in a restaurant, as a host, at a Tapas restauarant one summer in Chicago. I ate a ton of queso de cabra and very quickly decided I never wanted to work in restaurants again, for the mere fact that I found it rather torturous to watch other people enjoying their food and I had to starve.
-The job to have while attending Theatre School was to be hired as an usher when rental productions would use our space. It was great pay for maybe 15 minutes of mindless work, after which you could enjoy the show, or engage in epic battles with your flashlight. Juvenile, but fantastic.
-I have been babysitting since I was twelve, and still do every now and then. The first child I ever babysat is now an adult and on her way to being a huge star, however there is also one baby who I have sat for at least five times and still have yet to meet. Her name is Macy and she goes to sleep at 7pm, and never wakes. She is a gift from above.
-Once I was hired through my agency to work at the NeoCon trade show at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. It's a huge event focusing on office furniture, and my job was to pass out pins and candy to passerby's and encourage them to find their "style ID" on the 8th floor. Why you need to know your style when it comes to cubicles I will never know. It was so horrible that I hid in stairways and behind model kitchen units, in an attempt to keep my sanity. Never again.
-Being hired to perform at the Chicago Auto Show is much less annoying. I sang "Let the Sunshine In" with a group of incredibly talented Chicago actors, for the launch of a new line of KIA cars. We each wore a different solid colored crewneck sweater from Lands End, and threw our hands in the air with great abandon. In a word: queer. In another word: amazing.
-For two years I worked as a receptionist at a commercial photography studio that threw incredible parties and didn't mind if I drank alcohol while working. A privledge I never took full advantage of.
-One day while working at the aformentioned phtography studio, the producer asked to see my hands, which apparently are photograph worthy and whisked me upstairs to feature my digits in a cataloge. This gave me the courage to call up the print department in my agency to see if I could be seen as a parts model. My agent said "its a very quick decision and is usually a no, but I will see you." Luckily, he said yes, and every now and then I literally make money from my hands.
-After I graduated college I spent a couple years working as the front desk manager of a spa, which once I left I swore I would never revisit customer service ever again. Well "never say never" apparently, because once I decided to move to NYC I contacted the New York branch, and five minutes later I was rehired. Lesson learned: its a good thing to keep the bridges you build intact.
-Finally, this is without a doubt the best job I have ever had (aside from special theatre gigs) only involved twenty minutes of actual work, but was oh so very cool to be a part of.
Have you had any special/scary/random/interesting jobs you have had to do to make ends meet?
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Chin Upkeep
Monday was an interesting day. One of those days when you have a bit of a hard time being positive and believing you are actually making the right decisions. Don't ya just love those days?
I had mentioned in an earlier post that my initial intention was to stay in Chicago while Jürgen relocated to NYC. My reasoning was that I had a condo in Chicago, so many friends, a theatre company, and my career was being forged there. In a way it's as if I felt a loyalty to the city, as though my roots were so deeply planted that to uproot them would cause a size-mic shift in the earths plates or something. Chicago was it. My life was planned.
However, what I wasn't allowing myself to have was the option of freedom and possibility. The ability to control my own destiny and make choices. I had given it all to Chicago, and why? What does Chicago owe me? I can't even trust the city to keep the parking meters free on Sunday's let alone to determine my life path. When I really began to think about it, I was frustrated in Chicago. My career had basically hit a wall, and try as I might I couldn't find any way around it. This only resulted in me becoming more focused on the outcome, the result, rather than the process. I finally realized the only way for this wall to ever be demolished would be for me to literally turn around, and walk away. Otherwise, an impression of my forehead would be forever emblazoned on the front of it. It was time to leave.
Now I am in a city where no one has an idea of who I am. I can revel in the anonymity of it all! I can be whoever I choose to be. You here that NYC? It is I who will call the shots!
Still, for every glorious moment when I feel the swell of potential dreams in my chest, and the pounding of excitement in my heart (cue Jason Robert Brown music), there are five other moments where thoughts of total doubt and bleak reality slap me in the face, and I am not always strong enough to fight back. New York is huge and full of so many insanely talented people. If I was hitting a wall in Chicago what makes me think, for a second, New York will have built a door I can walk through, complete with a pretty mat in front of it to wipe my feet upon?
Damn, it's hard work to be positive sometimes!
The day's feelings of doubt were particularly unwelcome as I had my first meeting with a New York agent. Oh timing how you mock me! In truth, I think the meeting went pretty well. I felt I presented myself with confidence and determination, but if this gentlemen only knew how much stock I was putting into this chat of ours. I secretly had set up some unreal expectations that I would be given an immediate answer, and it my daydreams it was a resounding "yes! we want you!" However the reality is that there is a whole team of agents who have to sign off on you, so I will not know any sort of answer for a few days. This waiting game, I hate being a player.
Thank you to everyone who sent me positive vibes. I truly appreciate it! If it doesn't work out I will certainly survive, and of course blog about it along the way.
I had mentioned in an earlier post that my initial intention was to stay in Chicago while Jürgen relocated to NYC. My reasoning was that I had a condo in Chicago, so many friends, a theatre company, and my career was being forged there. In a way it's as if I felt a loyalty to the city, as though my roots were so deeply planted that to uproot them would cause a size-mic shift in the earths plates or something. Chicago was it. My life was planned.
However, what I wasn't allowing myself to have was the option of freedom and possibility. The ability to control my own destiny and make choices. I had given it all to Chicago, and why? What does Chicago owe me? I can't even trust the city to keep the parking meters free on Sunday's let alone to determine my life path. When I really began to think about it, I was frustrated in Chicago. My career had basically hit a wall, and try as I might I couldn't find any way around it. This only resulted in me becoming more focused on the outcome, the result, rather than the process. I finally realized the only way for this wall to ever be demolished would be for me to literally turn around, and walk away. Otherwise, an impression of my forehead would be forever emblazoned on the front of it. It was time to leave.
Now I am in a city where no one has an idea of who I am. I can revel in the anonymity of it all! I can be whoever I choose to be. You here that NYC? It is I who will call the shots!
Still, for every glorious moment when I feel the swell of potential dreams in my chest, and the pounding of excitement in my heart (cue Jason Robert Brown music), there are five other moments where thoughts of total doubt and bleak reality slap me in the face, and I am not always strong enough to fight back. New York is huge and full of so many insanely talented people. If I was hitting a wall in Chicago what makes me think, for a second, New York will have built a door I can walk through, complete with a pretty mat in front of it to wipe my feet upon?
Damn, it's hard work to be positive sometimes!
The day's feelings of doubt were particularly unwelcome as I had my first meeting with a New York agent. Oh timing how you mock me! In truth, I think the meeting went pretty well. I felt I presented myself with confidence and determination, but if this gentlemen only knew how much stock I was putting into this chat of ours. I secretly had set up some unreal expectations that I would be given an immediate answer, and it my daydreams it was a resounding "yes! we want you!" However the reality is that there is a whole team of agents who have to sign off on you, so I will not know any sort of answer for a few days. This waiting game, I hate being a player.
Thank you to everyone who sent me positive vibes. I truly appreciate it! If it doesn't work out I will certainly survive, and of course blog about it along the way.
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