But Sometimes People Are OK

I spend so much time on this blog complaining about bad customer service and moody New Yorkers and illiterate CVS employees. This post will be devoted to the nice people of New York!

***

Yesterday afternoon, after dropping off my most likely ill-fated roll of film to be processed on a contact sheet, I went for lunch at a small coffee shop in midtown. They'd advertised a Mozzarella Baguette Special outside their shop on the sidewalk, so I asked about it. The chef, who was behind the counter, came out from behind the counter, walked over to a big pile of menus and gave one to me. He said "Are you a vegetarian?" "Yes," I said, which prompted him to go over the entire menu with me to indicate what was safe. He then said things like "And if you don't like that, I could make it with this..." and offered up suggestions. He said "I'll make anything you want!" So I suggested a sandwich. He said "Of course!" and then "And what if I put balsamic vinegar on it?" "YES!"

Halfway through eating my sandwich, someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and it was the chef, standing there with a soup sample. "It's lentil soup. It's vegetarian. I thought you might like it. You can eat this when you finish your sandwich."

Adorable.

***

This morning, at every stop, the conductor on the C train said "For all of you getting off at the stop, please have a wonderful day! And I hope you enjoyed your time on the C train!"

***

On Wednesday night, I walked around my neighborhood in search of photo opportunities and didn't come up short because everyone was so nice. They smiled and welcomed me into their workplaces. They called me "Sweetie" and wished me luck. Normally I'd be annoyed being called "sweetie," but if it means having an awesome final photo project involving a taxi cab repair shop and its wacky employees, so be it!

***

There are nice people in New York City. Tons of them. I, like many people, just focus on the bad ones. But no more! Maybe that's what my photo project will be. Friendliness In The City. And I'll do a companion piece entitled Miserableness In The City, which will feature CVS and Cingular employees, as well as receptionists in dentists' offices. Yay!

***

Have good weekends.

The New York Times

It's been a sad week for my career as a photographer, folks.

1. After frantically finishing D's roll of color film on Saturday, I excitedly wound it so that I could drop it off to be developed. The manual said that the roll was finished winding when the tension eased, but there wasn't really any tension to begin with. I would furiously and gave up at an arbitratry time, popped it open, and voila! No film in the camera. This was not my fault. Still it was heartbreaking. All of the photos of the cute people on the street who asked me to take their pictures were gone! The businessman nervously smoking, the cardboard boxes, the pictures of Bench Buddy. All nonexistent.

2. I loaded a new roll of film and shot my homework that weekend. I also got some amazing shots of my former laundromat, which was being deconstructed. I couldn't wait to see them! I took some cool photos of a street fair on 34th Street, and some hopefully pictures of some buildings in that area. I dropped off the film on Monday to have a contact sheet made. When I walked in to pick it up on Tuesday night right before class, the dude behind the counter cringed sadly when he saw me. He said "Oh, Leah, your film. There was nothing on it." Nothing! It had never seen light. It never caught when I loaded it. I was devastated. Not only did I feel stupid, but I hadn't done my homework! This is not like me, folks. I went to class, morose, only to learn that many others with old manual cameras had made the same mistake. The teacher showed me how to load my film, and honestly, there's no way I ever would have known how to do it without having seen a demonstration. I have no way of knowing whether or not my pictures are crap. I don't know if the light meter works. I don't know if I know how to use it. No idea.

3. I took a roll of film last night. I made many mistakes because I was nervous. I am dropping that one off this afternoon. I'm sure I wound it incorrectly, or I opened the camera before it was completely wound, or the camera was set to the wrong film speed. I don't even want to know! I'm sure all the photos will be blurry messes. I'll be terribly embarrassed when I pick them up. I'll shove digital prints in my teacher's face to prove that I can take a decent photo. Bad, bad, bad.

4. I tried to do some of my assignments using my digital yesterday because I thought "Well, at least if I'm sucking I'll know," but because our assignments this week are about motion and not light, I can't do them with my digital because of my shaky hands and because my digital doesn't have a small enough aperture. On top of all this, I was doing the portion of my homework in which I was to capture something that's moving really fast with a really small shutter speed and was very excited with the results showing a vortexed conical tube with media in it appearing completely stationary with water droplets!!!, until I did the same shot at like 60 and it was still frozen. Wtf!? Clearly I have no idea what's going on.

5. In spite of this, I was very excited about my photography career because I was contacted by a woman earlier in the week who works at the cultural center that hosted the Spelling Bee. She said "The New York Times is running a piece about Spelling Bees, and they'd like to use your photo that you took of your boyfriend at the spelling bee. The deadline is tomorrow." D called her and gave her permission to use his image. I then sent her the photo after I'd made certain I'd get a photo credit. In the New York Times. D and I tried not to get too excited about it, as the week hadn't been going well aside from my kick-ass seminar and because neither of us are lucky people. Of course I got excited anyway, because I felt that having a photo in the New York Times would nullify my awful photography week and perhaps redeem my tragic failure as an amateur photographer.

6. And, of course, they ran the story sans my photo. Dear god! My career is over before it even began.

Sniff.

Woe.

Woe is me.

Etc.

Photography Class

Date: 9.28.05
Genre: Quick and Dirty Teaching Tool!




Description:

I was thinking that it's about time My Mundane Life In Song had another song on it! It's been a while since the Ethan Hawke song.

This being said, there's not much time these days for songs. When D asked me if I wanted to have dinner together tonight, I paused and he inferred "Oh, you want tonight to be alone night?"

Yes.

I love Alone Night. I love having no obligations outside of myself.

Unfortunately I spent a greater portion of tonight working on my photography class homework, which will most likely be a disaster. I was trying to do some long (fun with light) exposures and had the aperture setting completely wrong. I wasn't thinking. I just did this and, well, its sort of late. I think I am going to go back outside and try it again after I finish this entry.

Nevertheless... Alone Night was mainly devoted to photography homework, so I thought it appropriate to write a song for Beginning Photographers to remind them of things that could go wrong and to give them confidence.

Yes, folks, this song is based on not one but two true stories about my photography experience thus far. I am fairly demoralized and almost want to stop the class, but I will persevere, and will sing this song whenever I feel like being a quitter.

I spent about half an hour on this song. It's terrible. I'll re-do it some time when Alone Night turns into Alone Week or Alone Weekend. Right now, even when I am Alone I am Alone with Camera.

Obligations. I guess homework is an obligation.

So yeah. The song sucks as much as my first attempts at film photography.

But it's a song!

The good news is that Audioblog now has preferences for upload quality, so hopefully all future My Mundane Life In Song songs will be easier for you to listen to and won't be all distored!!! Woo hoo!!!

Lyrics:

Be sure to check that there's a roll of film
In your camera before you take pictures
Cuz if you don't you will be sad
And missing all the photos you had

Be sure to check that you've loaded your film properly
Make sure it advances properly
Cuz if you don't you'll be in class
Without homework and you'll feel like an ass

The worst thing you'll note
Is all your lost photos
Of smiling strangers and laundromats
Of the Empire State Building and blurry traffic
You'll never see them

You'll have no way of knowing
If you're doing anything right at all
You're used to digital
Everything could be overexposed
You'll never know

Maybe you're in over your head
Or maybe you're retarded
Or maybe you'll never get good at this
Maybe just be patient
Don't get attached
And practice

Practice loading your film
Get help wtih loading your film
Learn how to load your film

My Parents Are Even Cheaper Than I'd Realized

I adore my parents. They are extremely loveable despite and because of their parent quirks.

I called them on Saturday to let them know that I'd changed my phone number, in case, for some reason, they'd been trying to get in touch with me or if they tried to call me before they received the email I'd sent explaining my current cell phone situation. I know that they worry, and I wanted to make sure they weren't worrying unnecessarily.

As she was writing down my new phone number, Mother said "Oh... is this a New York number?"

"Yes!" I exclaimed proudly.

"Oh well, then," she said, and sighed.

"What?"

"Well, I guess you'll just have to call us."

This was bizarre on two levels. The first was that my calling them isn't really different from what occurred when I had my original phone number. They never call! The second was the sigh regarding my New York number. Was she disappointed that I'd officially made the transition?

"Why?" I asked.

"Because, we don't have long distance."

"What?"

"We can't call outside of eastern MA or sourthern NH."

"No, you mean you can't call from eastern MA or southern NH, right? You don't have roaming."

I knew that my parents have an archaic, minimal cell phone plan. I knew that they couldn't roam, because my father always calls right before they get to somewhere they can't call from and declares "Well, just thought I'd call you before we get to Sturbridge because we can still talk to you! What's going on? Do you need to tell us anything?" I knew that they don't have any anytime minutes at all. They only have nights and weekends, and so can call only after 7 pm or on the weekends because otherwise it would cost them something like 50 cents a minute. I know this because my mother will frantically call me in the middle of the day and say "I'm using the calling card can you call me back?!" I knew that they have no long distance on their home phone because they are cheap.

What I didn't know was that my parents don't have long distance on their cell phone either! Is this even a possibility? Isn't that the point of having a cell phone? My parents don't really use it to be mobile. I think they have it so Father can talk from the car on weekends when he doesn't feel like shopping with Mother. They also have it so they can talk while they're indulging their their internet-addicted personalities, but this doesn't really work because they don't have good reception in their house. Inevitably I'll call them and they'll be like "Hi! We can't hear you! Call us back on the real phone in three minutes!"

She said "No, we can't actually call anywhere outside the local area or we get charged for it."

"Are you sure?" I insisted.

She said she was sure. I confirmed this with Father.

I said "Maybe you guys should get long distance. I mean, 2/3 of your kids live out of state now."

"No, that's why we have the calling card," Mother said. "That's how we talked to your brother in IL."

I can't believe they didn't get long distance to talk to my brother in IL!

"Huh," I said. "Well, I guess you can call me with the calling card and I can call you back."

But really, isn't it my Parents' responsibility to figure out a way to talk to their kids? What would they do if we didn't have cell phones or long distance plans? Clearly we are the ones who can't afford these things.

I also can't believe that my parents have nobody to call outside of their local area. I guess it makes sense - both of them were born and raised in MA and all of their families have settled there. They've never lived anywhere else, so I guess they've haven't had many opportunities to become friends with people who live in other states.

It's just bizarre that people exist, in this era, who can't make long distance calls.

My parents also have dial-up internet.

They're crazy, but that's why I love them.

Wardrobe Transition

I am so wearing long sleeves tomorrow! Woo hoo! Fall is here!!!!

The Best Feeling In the World Is....

Relief.

It's done! It's over! I survived my yearly seminar!!! Woo hoo!

And in more exciting news, my Ipod has been resurrected from the dead! It's a bit lethargic and the screen is problematic, but who cares!?

Now I have to decide if I want to cancel my order for the 60 gig refurbished Ipod, or if I want to keep it and try to sell the current one. I figure I can get a pretty penny for it despite its being damaged by selling it to someone with all of the songs on it. I mean, that's like 300 free CDs! Who wouldn't want that?

Business Models

It occurred to me this weekend that every store on the planet should operate like B & H. You go in, you figure out what you want, you have someone on the floor scan it in, they take it from you, they give you a slip of some sort, your items disappear, you go to the cash register without your disappeared items, you check out in one second because there's nothing to scan in, you get another receipt, you go to a second line and voila! Your items are there, in a bag, and are handed to you within two seconds. On a busy weekend afternoon, you are in and out of there in 5 seconds flat.

I wonder why more businesses don't operate this way. D says its because it requires a huge workforce to be this efficient. It's true. There are a lot of employees, and this probably wouldn't be a possibility for stores that aren't selling really expensive electronics. But still. It rules, and it is always a pleasure going in there, as long as you know exactly what you want.

In contrast we have Cingular. I have been a loyal Cingular subscriber since I reluctantly got a cell phone in 1999 after my roommate, R, got a serious girlfriend and was therefore on the phone at all times. He would say things like "You better not use the phone tonight, because A is going to call." He didn't say this because he really wanted to talk to A. He said it because he knew that A would rip him a new one if he wasn't available or if the line was busy. Because I liked R, I caved in and got myself a cell phone despite having previously said that I would never, ever, ever! have a cell phone.

With the death of my cell phone this weekend, I had to reevaluate whether I wanted to remain with Cingular or transfer to a new carrier in order to get a cheap, perhaps free, phone.

I wanted to stay with Cingular. I like Cingular. I have no complaints. Reception is great everywhere except The Parents', but that's not much of an issue these days. My contract had expired, so I figured I'd go to the Cingular store, renew my contract, and a get a free phone out of the deal.

I headed out on Saturday afternoon to the Cingular Store on the south side of 34th Street at 7th.

Nobody helped me when I walked in. There was a malaise amongst the employees, an overall attitude of being completely exasperated by anyone's being in the store. When nobody offered to help me after about two minutes (even though there were no other customers in the store), I approached a girl and explained my situation.

She said nothing. Finally she said "So?"

"So..." I said, "I'd like to renew my contract so I can get a cheap phone."

Nothing.

"Do you have cheap phones?"

She snapped "We have this one for $19.99 after rebate."

"I don't like that one," I said, because it was flimsy and had a mirror on it. But not a shiny mirror. A dull, ugly, pointless cell phone mirror. "Do you have other phones?"

Exasperated! She sighed loudly and said "THESE" and pointed to two other phones on the wall that were a bit too expensive.

"You have only three phones?"

She groaned and walked three whole feet to the other wall and showed me three more phones. I asked her if they had my old phone, which I love, and she said they didn't.

I finally consented to one of the phones even though I didn't like it. She asked me what my phone number was, and when I told her, she said "Where's that?" I explained that I still had my Boston number, and she said she could do nothing for me because I should have relocated. I said "Can't you relocate me right now?"

She didn't know but said I could try. I could call in from there and do it. It seemed a bit strange to me that she couldn't do it, but I figured she knew what she was talking about. I then said "Well, since you're going to relocate me, you can still take my Sim card out of this phone, right? So I won't lose my numbers."

"No, I can't, because you're out of the realm of service."

"Yes, but the data is in the card. Like we could copy the information onto the phone, then reset the card, and then it would be fine."

"No, you can't."

"I think you can."

"No. We are going to reset everything."

I asked her if she minded if I checked my voicemail before my phone ceased to exist, and she was put out by it. She didn't understand. I said "Look, I haven't had access to a phone and I just want to see if I missed any messages before you obliterate my old line."

Exasperated again! I checked my messages to see if D had called (we were supposed to be hanging out but couldn't because D refuses to make plans in advance and since I was without phone I couldn't communicate at all). He had called, but he didn't leave his number and I, because I don't know phone numbers because I am enslaved to technology, had no way to reach him. Knowing that my card was going to be killed and all hope of contacting D killed as well, and knowing that this woman was a royal pain in the ass, I decided to just leave and find another carrier.

I said "Do you know if there's a Sprint nearby?" Without hesitation she told me where I could find a Sprint and a Verizon.

Wtf!??! Isn't it their job to make sure patrons don't leave? Ridiculous.

I went to Verizon first. They didn't have any free phones either for new subscribers. I didn't like any of the phones there enough to pay what they were asking, so I headed to Sprint.

Sprint was nuts! They had millions of phones and options. Clearly everyone in New York has Sprint because there were tons of people there, waiting in a queue. Sprint is high tech. They have payment kiosks. They have a digital queue - you stop in at the front and then they put your name on a screen so you will know when it is your turn to be helped. I was tired and beat down and didn't want to figure these things out, so I decided to give up, go home and rethink things.

In my fantasy world, I would go home and find my exact phone for sale on Craigslist for $10. I would pick it up that afternoon, go to a different Cingular that night, and voila! Fully operational.

I headed west along the north side of 34th and noticed another Cingular store! It was directly across the street from the first Cingular I'd gone into.

"Hmmm... interesting..." I thought, and wondered if it would be different in there. I decided to go in, and lo and behold, it was another planet! It was professional, large, posh, and within three seconds of my being there, two people approached me and asked me if I needed help.

Within five minutes, I was sitting down, having been relocated by the store, my number was being changed, only after they put my cranberry juice soaked SIM card into my new phone, downloaded all the numbers, and then gave it back to me as a souvenir.

Now.

This is awesome, because I have a new phone that I actually like (although it was not free, but I think the days of the free phone with new contract are over), a New York number which I'd meant to get for a while, I had a nice time chatting with and being made fun of by the Nice Cingular Man, etc.

But.

What is Cingular thinking? They are thinking "If we have two stores, we'll get twice as much business!" but in essence, they are losing business of anyone who happens to be walking down the south side of the street.

If they removed the south side store, nobody would be distracted by it, they'd look across the street and see a Cingular store, and they would just go there.

Instead, they have one really shitty store and one awesome store, which makes no sense.

I think I am going to write them a letter.

Do I really care? No. But I am frustrated by this poor business model. Things that make no sense drive me insane. When I told Nice Cingular Man about the poor service across the street, he said "A lot of people have been saying that lately."

I guess I'll write a letter, if only to hopefully get some free Cingular gear out of this. Or a ring tone, because as cute as my new phone is, it isn't as good as my old phone and didn't come with any satisfactory ring tones. Oh well.

So yes. I have a new phone.

And I ordered a new refurbished 60 gig color-screen IPod and am hopefully going to sell my dead one on Craigslist for parts.

It sucks because I am poor, but at least I am almost back in business.

And now I must work on my seminar.

Au revoir!

Weekend

Yeah.

So the weekend flew by because of spending an entire day putting CD's into my computer, removing them, putting other ones in, making playlists, preparing for the day when I will, again, have an IPod.

I got up really early on Saturday morning after having gone to bed a few hours earlier because of anxiety. I thought "Wait! I shouldn't be sleeping when I could be uploading music onto my computer!"

I spent most of the day ripping CD's, while I organized what music remained on my computer, finished watching Spartacus, did the indoor portion of my photography homework, cooked elaborate lunch and dinner, and watched the entirety of Bonnie and Clyde. I left the house only to do the outside portions of my photography homework and to walk sadly up and down 34th Street in search of a new cell phone and cell phone deal, which was, apparently, not to be found (story coming soon...).

I had ambitious plans for the weekend. I wanted to catch up on phone calls, go to the International Center for Photography, go to Beacon's Closet to sell some clothes, go to a party with D. I did none of these things, because my plans were all messed up due to being phoneless and without phone numbers.

I spent yesterday doing the Saturday plans, which instead of being a movie and drink became brunch at an apartment in the Upper East Side followed by a movie followed by chatting at the apartment again. I was slightly distressed about going to the Upper East Side, as it is in the middle of nowhere and is notorious for being, well, lame. I was expecting it to be a barren wasteland, but it was actually quite nice. Difficult to get to, and tons of babies, but still there were things going on. Not much of "a scene," but I think that's actually quite nice.

Brunch was nice. It was nice to be visiting someone's apartment for a meal! These things tend not to happen in NYC because apartments are small. She made scrambled eggs with cheese and garlic and oregano, and bagels, and fake sausage and fake bacon. I was slightly concerned about the fake sausage and bacon, as I don't eat sausage or bacon or any meat product because of texture issues. I thought it rude not to partake, so I forced myself. I didn't like the sausage, but man! The facon was amazing! I am addicted. If I ever go grocery shopping again I will most definitely buy some.

We saw Everything is Illuminated, which I adored. It wasn't the best adaptation of a book (the book is one of the best books I've ever read), but it maintained the general vibe, humor, and sentimentality. The filmmaking and cinematography were superb. I really liked it. I laughed, I cried, etc.

Then, because I hadn't seen him in a whole day!, D wanted to go on a proper date. He was very cute and missed me! He said "I think this is the longest I've gone without seeing you! I feel like I haven't seen you in weeks!"

I pointed out to him that its the longest he's gone without seeing me here. He'd apparently forgotten about all of the trips he's taken in the past year during which we haven't seen each other. I guess there's a psychological difference between going away and being, well, left somewhere.

He was very cute, and suggested we go to dinner and a movie. I was excited, so actually did my hair. D said "Your hair looks good - did you do something different?" "No," I said, "I just did it."

D said "OK. Tell me exactly what you've been doing for the past two days, since I last saw you. Play by play." So cute. It's so nice to be missed.

We went to see Corpse Bride, which was good but not awesome. Not nearly as good as Nightmare Before Christmas, but how could it be?

Yeah. Lots of movies.

Incidentally, Spartacus redeemed itself, but maybe its because I only had 20 minutes remaining to watch. I actually felt, gasp, emotion at the end! So it wasn't completely terrible as an experience stretched over a week's time.

I intend to make better use of next weekend. It will be good. I am counting the seconds. Once I get through tomorrow's seminar all will be fine. I will no longer
have any anxiety. It will be splendid.

OK. I am going to eat lunch now.

More later...