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.