Darling Nicky

A bus driver gave me a cherry tootsie pop for picking up her pen. She said, “It’s the least I could do for you”. I thought to myself, “The least you could do for me is to say ‘Thank you’ and drive me to my destination, but I’ll take it since you offered”. I feel like I just got a gold star sticker placed on my forehead by my fifth grade teacher, Ms. Gordon, for getting a 100% on my math test on long division. I did something good, and am very proud. Thank you.  

I know this is really random, and not very entertaining but I thought it was worth sharing – some kindness in the city that people say everyone is so rude in.

My 5 year high school reunion will be held in September. Wow! When I got the mail yesterday and saw Saint Michael Academy on an envelope, I just thought it was the little newsletter they sent out from time to time but then I remebered that they discontinued it due to a lack of funds. So I opened it, and it was an invitation to rsvp to Reunion 2008. It would be a lot of fun to catch with some of the people I was at least friendly with back in high school. I know a lot of the girls I went to school with got married to and started families right after graduation, some went to college (like myself), others took a year off to get a job to be able to afford college and stave off heavy use of student loans (unlike myself), and others just disappeared into the world, possibly to never be heard from again.

Reunion 2008 will include Mass at 11:30am (which I would like to skip because I’m athiest) and a buffet lunch with music and dancing! Oh, SMA, how your feigned enthusiasm never fails to soup me up! One problem is that I’d have to pay $50 for tickets for myself and a guest. Yeah, being that it has been quite difficult for me to find a job since I graduated this past May I definately do not have the money. C’est la vie! Hopefully, I can get the money somehow and go. I’d love to see my old classmates…

This video is a bunch of soundbites made to make Obama sound like he’s singing Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”. Hilarious!

Another legend gone.

On Saturday morning, actor and comedian Bernie Mac passed away from complications of pneumonia after having been hospitalized with it on August 1st. This is very sad news. I never get upset when celebrities pass away, but Bernie Mac wasn’t just a celebrity. He helped me develop a sense of humor from watching tapes of Def Comdey Jam and in like House Party 3, Booty Call, How To Be A Player , and the Ocean’s Eleven movies. He was a part of me growing up. Now I know what it must have felt like for folks when older comedy legends like Redd Foxx died, and recently when George Carlin passed. Thank you for sharing your talents with the world. I know I enjoyed laughing at your jokes. You will be missed by many.

Walking around Manhattan is one of my most favorite things to do when I have absolutely nothing to do. I can spend hours out of the day going from Harlem (where I’m from) to Battery Park City or the Financial District. Tonight, as I was on my way home from the journeying to the West Village, I saw a couple of tranies of the evening doing some business on the street as I sat a bus stop for the M8. There were two men with them, I think one of them was their pimp and the other was maybe another prostitute looking for a date. The one who I think was their pimp was very concerned for the two women and watched them as a couple cars stopped to inquire about what they had for sale, or to ask directions. The one who I think was a prostitute kept circling around me at the bus stop, trying to get my attention. I ignored him and kept looking for the bus.

It doesn’t surprise to hookers in action. Hell, I’ve seen couples having sex in parked cars over in the East Village. Not only that, the Meat Packing District and other streets west of 9th avenue and below 14th street, before the area became filled with chic and expensive stores and Sex in the City wannabes, has always been known for being quite salacious. The neighborhood used to be well known for a proliferation of crazy gay bars and sex clubs way before Stella McCartney and Diana Von Furstenberg settled in. What amazed me was that the ladies were so sloppy. They weren’t being very careful at all to not bring the wrong type of attenion to themselves, i.e. the police.

I’ve seen business women on that street across from the bus stop many nights, but they are usually very discreet. I try not to look at them and mind my business, so I never see anyone get into cars. I just know they’re not where they were before the cars pass. Sitting at the bus stop, I’ve had a couple bridge and tunnel men stop to glare at me liike I’m up for sale. I let my disinterest show and they keep it moving. The ladies were not loud, but they had a very boisterous and obvious way of carrying themselves that said, “Yes, I’m a tranny. Are you game for whatever?”

While I do wish that some people would make better career choices, I’m not looking down on prostititues. It’s a tough world, and I only know a sembleance of how hard it is. I’m educated, but I don’t have a lot of work experience and got turned down by Starbucks. I don’t think these ladies have the same education level as I do, or much work experience, especially as they are transexuals. Who might hire them if even I can’t get a job? What might these women think of doing to maintain in one of the world’s most expensive cities? The oldest profession. Hooking.  You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. I just couldn’t be out there with.

Well… I graduated college in May this year, and it seems that it has become very difficult to find work. I’ve sent my resume to I don’t know how many magazines and still haven’t found paying work. Right now I am interning for URB magazine, but it feels weird because I work from home and go out to cover events, and I have yet to meet my employers. Some people might think this is good and that I shouldn’t have anytihng to complain about, but I still can’t help but feel highly unproductive. I still don’t leave my room, let alone the apartment, for most of the day. Don’t get me wrong. I like what I’ve done so far for the magazine, but I was hoping to get out of the house and into an office setting.

Here is a run down of what my days have been like since May:

5:30 AM – go out for a run in Central Park.

7:15 AM – make breakfast before I pass out.

7:50 AM - shower

8:30 AM – read the paper and check emails while switching the radio dial between Ed Lover and Star & Buc Wild.

 10 AM – watch Wendy Williams Show

11 AM – watch The View (Sherrie Shephard is sooooo fired, by the way)

12 PM – watch Eye Witness News

12:30 PM – run errands, go to some event, read a book, watch a movie, etc.

10 PM – Home, and back on the internet checking emails, facebook, myspace, nah right, etc.

12 or 1 AM – Sleep

I’m not a very busy person, and I’m starting to miss the business that school afforded me, although it’s not the franticness of finals that I liked so much. I was a round people whether it was in class, the cafeteria, the school newspaper office, in line at the registrar, etc.I was always surrounded by people and rushed energy, especially since my alma mater is in the Financial District. It always gave me the sense that I’m doing something. Hopefully, this won’t last for more than a few months.

Kids have always been known to throw snowballs at buses, which is pretty harmless; but it takes a special Latarian Milton type Bebe kid to throw a rock at a bus hard enough that the glass shatters. That is exactly what happened while I rode the bus home one night last week. The sound of the rock hitting the glass scared everyone so bad. The woman who was sitting where the glass broke had to move, and the bus driver had to stop the bus and make a police report. This incident reminds me of a time I was on the bus with a friend of mine and she asked me if the windows were bullet proof. My stomach got a little tight, and I could only say to her, “I don’t know. I just don’t want to be the one to find out.” Of course, it would be expensive to make the windows on buses bullet proof, but the next a glass shatters (and there will be a next time) it could be an actual bullet coming through the window with no chance of it missing a passenger.

There have been ads all over New York City for TruBlood, a synthetic blood drink for vampires, and for the Fellowship of the Sun and the American Vampire League. Some for the AVL even being writtern on with red ink to put fangs on the people in the posters. All of this is a great marketing plan by HBO to promote their new series BloodCopy by the makers of Six Feet Under and will premiere in the fall. HBO has gone so far with promotion that they even got a few websites for BloodCopy and the pro- and anti-vampire organizations. The whole thing is a really savvy way of getting the word out on an upcoming series, and pique people interests in watching the show when it premieres. It’s prety genius! Below is a photo I took of an ad I saw in Midtown Manhattan.