As the June posting date clearly shows, I have delayed posting this update far too long, so I will now post it, and continue to delay my next update for several more months. So stay tuned for my Thanksgiving update, due out sometime in June.
On to your regular, not so timely scheduled, but so-worth-reading, scheduled program . . .
HAAAPPY NEW Yea..uh... Wha? We're halfway through 2009 already?!? *edit* all the way through 2009?!
WTF!?! Where have I been?
Yeah, I know. My last blog was
So what have I been up to since December of '08?? I'll just give you the highlights:
Job: Still have it. The economy has destroyed the piano industry, but the ship is still afloat. I am lucky enough to be with a financially strong company that provides good service, fantastic products, and caters to a city full of economically sheltered rich people. BUT, there's drama... oh the drama. See, the guy who hired me doesn't employ me, the guy who employs me doesn't really need me, the guy who needs me (probably) doesn't even know I exist, and the people who know I exist can't really use me. While you are chewing on that, I'll elaborate..
I was hired by the son-in-law of the folks I currently work for. He was going to buy them out and combine their rebuilding factory, and piano piano showroom, with his business. There is a lot more to this than what I can write here, what with the lawsuit and all, but it isn't pretty. They are suing each other, and the premise under which I was hired has completely disolved. So much for doing business with family. The good news is the company at which I am employed continues to thrive in a down economy. While we have internal power struggles, a confusing hierarchy, sometimes baffling methods of handling things, and no coffee machine: read - no coffee machine whatsoever, I am still happy to be a functioning member of their team.
Pad: The apartment has worked out quite nicely. Sure, it's more than most mortgages and 1/4th the square footage, it's all about location. A block from my house is the Beacon Theater. Two blocks from my house is one of the best grocery stores in the city: Fairway. Half a block away I have Riverside Park. I don't have to walk further than four blocks to have any of the following: drugstores, haircuts, pet supplies, Starbucks, Pizza, Chines food, Tai Food, Italian Food, Sushi, Greek Food, Comedy Shows, Live Music, Massages, Gyms, farmers markets, flee markets, bond markets, you name it... It's here. In fact, people ask me what it's like to live in New York, and how I compare it to California. I tell them it's kinda like taking a week's worth of food, squishing it all down into one 2" cube, and eating it all in one bite.
Overstimulation.
There's so much to do, I can sit in my apartment, befuddled, trying to sort it all out, and not get one single thing accomplished. Still, I love my location, but I've gotta move. Rents are down, and deals are out there to be had. So I may be saying goodbye to my apartment, depending on my landlord's willingness to negotiate. I'm not optimistic. Last time I tried to negotiate, which netted me a savings of $50 per month, she said, in her ever so pleasing old-lady-irish-accent "Oh deary, you've really got me over a barrel now, don't you?".
I think I'll just have to relocate.
