I hurt myself at the gym the other day. The exact moment is still fresh in my head. There I was, back flat against the weight bench, two 400-pound dumbbells poised above my head. Nickelback played through the speakers, angering me to the brink of insanity at the unfairness of life. My muscles twitched; sweat [...]
Category Archives: Jackson Heights
Unemployed snow day photo exhibition
Thursday, February 11, 2010
I love a good snow day, even when there’s nothing to stay home from. What kid, or kid at heart, doesn’t? To this day, the news radio chimes make me hope for the words, “Montgomery County schools will be closed today,” no matter the time or season. A snow day is special, a surprise holiday, [...]
Unemployment gets a man off the subway platform for a change
Friday, October 16, 2009
Life used to be so easy when I had a job. Okay, maybe that’s overstating it a little. Subway travel was easy, or at least buying a fare card was. Life was hard then too, just in a different, more financially enriching way. And subway travel was and is always an adventure, like the flume [...]
Adventures in unemployment… trial membership at the fancy gym
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
I was walking down Broadway last Friday evening, south of Madison Square Park but north of Union Square. This is a ritzy part of town, where nannies pay other nannies to push strollers and restaurants offer $25 lunch specials one week a year, by reservation only. Design Within Reach – whose name assumes the customer [...]
“Coming to America” is alive and well in Queens
Thursday, September 17, 2009
After a long day of not finding a job, it’s relaxing to engage in an even more mindless activity. Channel surfing, second to sleeping, is the greatest time-waster ever created. My thumb and a few buttons on the remote control give me 200 stations of useless television programming, and occasionally something worth watching. I always [...]
These are the people in my neighborhood
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Oh, who are the people in your neighborhood?
In your neighborhood?
In your neighborhood?
Say, who are the people in your neighborhood?
The people that you meet each day
Once upon a time I had a job. Or maybe I just dreamt it up to kill time between layoffs. The neighborhood where I worked was filled with tourists and people [...]
Adventures in bus riding, part 2
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
My bus trip to DC featured a typical cast of knuckleheads. But the trip back was special, short bus special even. (Like how I bring it all together?) I arrived at the station at 7:45 a.m. to find the line winding all the way back to the exit. The previous two buses didn’t run, we [...]
Opening a store… the solution to my unemployment woes
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
The Great Recession is stopping me and millions of people from finding a job. We’ve all seen the unemployment numbers, and they aren’t good. But this doesn’t seem to be keeping entrepreneurial types from opening stores in Jackson Heights. Every time one closes – which seems to be often – another pops up within a [...]
A place where the unemployed blogger people run free
Saturday, June 20, 2009
I need a new place to go blog and be unemployed during the day with my computer… ok, with wifey’s computer. My requirements are simple. It has to be reasonably close to home, or at least in NYC. It has to be cheap (by which I mean free) and near food and a bathroom. It [...]
A man and his cookie – a dream comes true… a Lifetime original movie, presented by Nabisco
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Jackson Heights is known for great food, and much of it inexpensive. Four of New York Magazine’s top five food carts set up near my apartment. Some of the city’s best Thai food is within walking distance. And Pio Pio, what the food Gods envisioned when they made chicken edible, is also just a jaunt [...]