The Play Company and More!

Exciting news!

I am now the Marketing Intern for the Play Company, an off-Broadway company that produces the American premieres of contemporary international playwrights. I start next week, and this upcoming month is going to be crazy! Santaland, PlayCo, and Town Hall!

I'm really excited to start working with PlayCo. This is exactly the internship I wanted, in terms of the specialization and their willingness to teach. I may have touched upon this before, but I was/am having a hard time getting hired, even as an intern because the minimum requirements companies are expecting are incredibly high. In my interview I was incredibly upfront out not having amazing photo-shopping skills, and non existent video editing skills, but they took me on because I have a willingness to learn, and because I'm totally serious about the field.

I just wanted to let you know. Also, the Santaland Puppet Theatre is only open to the public on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

Life's Bittersweet

I generally try to find the silver lining when not so awesome things happen. Sometimes there isn't one, and that's when I use the spiritual beliefs to justify my misfortune. This isn't one of those times that I have to think about what the greater powers have in store, and it does have a silver lining, but it's kind of just a bummer.

This past weekend I had to make the decision to give up moving into the basement apartment in my grandmother's house. She would have had to charge me rent ($700 for a 1 bedroom, a STEAL for the NYC market) because she only works seasonally as a seamstress and my grandfather is retired, and this their only source of income while she isn't working.

Their current tenants applied for Section 8 housing (their rent is based on their income and the landlord is subsidized by the government), and were supposed to move out June 1st. They signed a lease and payed money and everything, but since the building is new construction there were some problems with the contractors forgetting to install things like the sidewalk and the meters that measure how much electricity each apartment uses. READ: CORRUPTION. So they've finally moved out, however just in time for my student loan grace period to end.

As if starting to pay student loans and rent on the same day wasn't a bad combination already, add in the fact that I still haven't been employed in a position with a salary. My ushering job gets me about $100 a week, and a little more money will come in once Macy's starts paying me, but it still isn't enough. I will continue to live in my tiny bedroom at my grandmother's, fortunately, rent free.

The reason I'm most bummed about not being able to move into the apartment, besides my independence and my own bathroom (I am 1 of 6 people living here with only 1 bathroom), is that my creativity is being stifled. I've had a whole bunch of projects in mind for the apartment. I'm not very picky about apartments, I don't care that my appliances aren't stainless and that my closet isn't walk-in. It's a combination of my independence and the fact that I will probably never be able to afford a one bedroom apartment by myself in this city. A studio, yes. But a studio is a big bedroom with the other rooms combined.

I've been bitten by the interior design and flea market bugs and it's starting to itch! I'm going to share some of my project ideas with you in the next couple of posts because I just can't hold it in anymore. Also, my birthday is in 2 days, and the only thing, other than student loans, I'm going to spend my money on is a copy of Flea Market magazine. I'm sure that will help the itch.

Toodles!

Santaland!

I never announced this on Dear Jane, I don't think, or I don't recall. But I got a job at Macy's Santaland this holiday season. This has definitely been a bucket list item for me. For those who don't know, Macy's originated the sitting on Santa's lap tradition. I first fell in love with the idea of Santaland my junior year of high school when my English teacher played part of David Sedaris' NPR special. Click the link to listen to the first part, there are four total. This was also converted into a one man show.

I originally applied to be a Support and/or Sales Elf, because that's the ad I saw on Playbill. My interview was scheduled for 8am at Macy's Herald Sq. and there had to be about a hundred people there. They corralled us into a large room to wait for interviews, we were greeted by the man in charge of the Santaland department, who had started out at Macy's as a Santa. They told us they were going to do one on one interviews, and I have to say, I am really impressed by that. There were three managers, two had a list of everyone's names, and the other just pointed and picked. I was the first one he picked. Since he didn't know my name I gave him my resume, and he immediately said, "Oh you're and usher?" And then he offered me a position at the Santaland Puppet Theater, as an usher. My life is ushering.

So, despite what David Sedaris said, they didn't even do a background check. I start training tonight!

I've learned some HTML things.

This is to test my skills without the book.

Also to see what "Edit HTML" means in blogger world.

I went to the DMV this morning. I woke up at 6am to get there when it opened at 8:30am. There are only three DMVs in Manhattan, and they do a pretty good job hiding them. Really. The line is just as long at opening as it is at anytime during the day. I applied for a New York State Non-Driver's ID, registered to vote as New York resident, and became and organ donor.

I was there for only about an hour and a half, and only spent an hour standing in line. Reading in a line at the DMV is incredibly uncomfortable. I only read one chapter of my HTML book. I'm reading "Learn HTML and CSS with w3schools," and I like it so far, despite reading only a little. The w3schools (I'm pronouncing it "we-schools") company is really cool from what I can tell. Their website is really interactive, and free, and there are tons of other things you can learn from them. Admittedly I played around with some HTML on their site before coming here.

I'm very excited to learn this. It opens up a whole new world, and many many opportunities. I can't wait to master this and learn more skills! I'm going to Virginia for my cousin's wedding this weekend, and while I'm on the plane I'll be reading.

EDIT: Just took a look at the post and it looks AWESOME. I'm super excited!

HTML

Hello!

I wanted to announce that I picked up two HTML how-to books from the library today, and I'm going to attempt to learn it.  This blog will be my experimentation playground.  You have been warned.

On a different note, Jared Pelchat, Nick Tosches, and Justin Silverman will be recieveing something fun in the mail.  They have been warned.


Happy Tuesday!

#OccupyParty

While I'm not unemployed I still feel like I am.  I am definitely one of the 99%, and I spent most of today preparing myself for eminent doom.  

Read: student loan repayment.  I created an Excel workbook with three spreadsheets.  They detail how much I owe, how much I've paid/will pay.  One sheet for private loans, Stafford loans, and money I owe my mom.  I used formulas, even a couple that work across multiple spreadsheets.  I have Microsoft Excel proficiency.  Hire me please?  I've never used Quickbooks, but I imagine it's an aesthetically pleasing version of what I created today.  I'm sure it has other features too.

I owe a grand total of $43,380.60 to my mom, the government, and Greater Lakes.  That's the equivalent of a year's tuition when I was a sophomore at Emerson.  I currently make $8.00 an hour at my job.  So I only need to work 5,422.5 hours to pay it off.  Too bad interest will accrue before then.  If only I had a salaried position.  If I made $26,000 a year, I would be making around $400.00 a week, given my assumptions about taxes from previous experiences.  From that $400 I would keep $100 for myself and pay $300 on my student loans a week for about 2 and 3/4 years and be done.  I can do that because I live with my grandmother.  I'd like if the universe could make that work for me.

Or if Obama read the e-mail I sent him the other day, took it to heart, and took action.  I suggested what I think is a win-win situation.  For those who aren't aware, the money you pay back to loan companies is credited to the accrued interest and not the principal balance.  You may have heard "Payments as low as $50 a month for 15 years."  That comes to a total of $9000, which my friends, will not equal the accrued interest nor the principal of your loan.  That's how loan repayment is sold to the masses, and I think it should come with a serving suggestion.  I told Obama that there should probably be some regulations set in place so that the money you send in to pay your loan credits the principal first.  Very few people can pay off a loan over night, so they will still be able to make interest.  The graduate will be able to pay off their loans before their own children go to college, and the loan company will still make money.  And let's be real, enough is never enough in Capitalism.  I don't think the companies should complain about profit loss because it won't be a huge loss.


On that note, if you haven't seen Idiocracy, you need to.  It's related to the thought I had about reading this article.  Read it.  You can see that I borrowed that line about paying off loans before their children go to college.  Let's think about that notion.  How likely are people to have children when it's very hard to budget for luxuries like a monthly movie ticket or theater ticket.  I feel that most educated people won't have children until a very late age or won't plan to have children.  There will probably be a couple hundred "mistake" children.  Most people in my generation having children didn't go to college, and are married already.  Please watch Idiocracy.  If you didn't click the link, it isn't a crazy documentary or anything.  It's a comedy starring Luke Wilson (I think he's hot.)

And before I go, here are a couple of pictures of the Times Square #OccupyParty.  It took me fifteen minutes to get from the train to work.

A Story About Karma

This post has been sitting for a couple of days because of technical difficulties and familial medical emergencies.  Please enjoy:

I went to Coney Island today and blew all the cash I could find in my bag.  As I stood in front of the Cyclone waiting for my friend Emma to get there, a bird pooped on my leg.  Emma hit her face on the safety bar on the Cyclone, and her nose was bleeding when we got off.  We ordered a Pina Colada and a Strawberry Daiquiri, and the girl who ordered her drink between Emma and I asked us if Rum was a flavoring or actual alcohol.  We thought she was an idiot but then we couldn't taste any alcohol in our drinks.  

This believe it or not is not a karma related story.  It just happens to a string of unfortunate events, that I believe indicate good things on the horizon.

Here's my real karma story:

I recently acquired a part time position ushering at The Town Hall Theater.  I was offered the position during the interview.  I instantly filled with euphoria and went on my merry way.  As I entered the subway station I stopped to put another two rides on my metro card.  While I did, a foreign-tourist couple watched me use the machine. I could tell they were having some trouble with it, because they were trying to find the coin slot in the card only machine.  

Because I was in such a good mood I thought I would help them out.  As it turns out, they were trying to pay with Euros, which, ladies and gentlemen, is not the preferred or accepted currency of the MTA.  They kept inquiring how much it would cost for two tickets, and my reply was $4.50.  They had 50 American cents and about 14 Euros in the form of 2 Euro coins.  We had a little back and forth about how one 2 Euro coin plus another 2 Euro coin makes the number 4.. in Euros.  At this point I was afraid my euphoria high would wear off, so I bought them a $4.50 metro card.  They thanked me profusely and tried to give me all their Euros, which I declined.  One because I'm too lazy to go get them converted, and two, if I did get them converted, they wouldn't be worth that much as the dollar is weak and fees are high.  

The next night I had finished my first shift at The Town Hall.  It was an exciting night of Rosh Hashanah services complete with medical emergency.  As I entered the subway, I stopped at the same metro card machine to put another two rides on my card, and I found this:

And that my friends, is karma.

First Post: My dive into blogging.

Hello Everyone (or no one)!

I "created" this blog, Dear Jane, many many moons ago.  I did it just because I could and really didn't plan on blogging anything.  From my perspective, personal blogs have replaced journal/diary writing and I think it's kind of weird that people would share everything with the Internet.  It makes sense for companies and self-employed folks to use blogs to keep everyone updated on their actions.

Three hours ago I decided I should start blogging.  Why?  Very good question.  Here's my somewhat hypocritical answer:  I'm not unemployed, but it feels like it.  I have a lot of time on my hands, and I want to use that time to improve any skills that I can.  Blogging is a skill.  Here I am.  Through blogging I will develop general blogging skills and I hope my writing skills will improve too, if anything they won't deteriorate. 

I have spent almost every waking hour of the day since August 5, 2011 writing cover letters and interviewing.  I am attempting a career in the arts in New York City, and as a recent graduate I face a lot of competition.  The Occupy Wall St. protests began the day I was hired for my (extremely) part time ushering job.  If you don't know what Occupy Wall St. is, you need to educate yourself.  You click that link!  I feel less alone in my job search.   

Anyway, I have felt the need to break the monotony of cover letter writing.  It's becomes more difficult by the minute to write a unique letter.  I've begun going to my local library.  It's shiny and new with some awesome chairs, but kind of seriously lacks full shelves.  Fortunately for me their this or that for idiots and dummies section is rather large.  My goal is to spend my mornings in the library reading up on a new skill, when there are only old people, and spend my afternoons in my bedroom writing cover letters.  It works this way because most jobs are posted around noon or later and children start getting released from school around 2pm.  They like to use the large computer area to play World of Warcraft and other first person shooter/role playing type games.  I'm reteaching myself Spanish (I'm Cuban for those of you unaware, and back in the day Spanish was the only language I knew) and Italian.  I've also been reading the Idiot/Dummy books on computer software because I'm interested in a Marketing career path.  And this brings us full circle to why I started blogging.

And just a small (probably also hypocritical) story on the name of this blog, which I chose when I created it, whenever that was.  One of my hobbies is pen palling, and my first (and longest lasting) pen pal is Ms. Jane Kavanagh.  She's a family friend on my father's side; our families have been friends since 1903, when her mother and my grandfather were pulled around the Brooklyn neighborhood of Ditmas Park in a radio flyer wagon.  Jane happens to be one of my heroes.  I aspire to be like her.  Whenever I write her a letter, I am writing a diary entry; she knows all of my deepest thoughts and most secret of secrets.  And that's why I named this blog Dear Jane.  If you don't remember what I said in my first paragraph, go look.  But I'm going to let you know right here and now, you won't be getting my deepest thoughts or most secret secrets on this blog.  

And I haven't quite decided if I'll start every post with "Dear Jane" and/or end it with "Love Katherine" or something like that.  If you are an actual person actually reading this, please let me know your opinion.

Fin.