Weekend Update

Friday turned out to be a pretty good day! I started with Musical Theatre at 9 AM. Our class is all female, and I am the oldest. The youngest is 17! The teacher is pretty young herself, no more than 30, and went to school for music at NYU. We started the class with vocal warm-ups. We were supposed to have a song prepared for the class so she could hear what our voice is like and assign us a new song. I ended up going last, because I was not too excited about having all these people hear me sing! But it went okay. I sang "If I Were a Bell" from Guys and Dolls (great song). I was a little nervous but got through the song decently. She assigned me "Mr. Snow" from Carousel. I downloaded the song and it's really cute! It's higher than the song for my other class.

Next I had "Career Counseling." The teacher is a casting director and she's really funny, but goes on tangents easily. We went around the room and said why we wanted to be in this business. It was a little hokey but she said it was important to remember why we want to do this in the first place. I can see her point. She talked a lot about what we are going to cover in the class, which was a lot! I hope we can get to it all. At the end of class she said her friend needs some extras for his film and told us to email her our headshot/resume for consideration. Groovy! Not holding my breath though...

After class we got lunch and then I went to Herald Square, which has some really good shopping. I went into Forever 21, another of my favorite stores. I have discovered this is really good motivation for me to apply for jobs. I just look at all the things I'd like to buy, and it lights a fire under my ass! Whatever works, I guess! When I got home, I changed and went on my first in-person application journey. I went to Calle Ocho, a nice Latin restaurant on the UWS about a 10 minute walk from me. They had posted an ad for servers on Craigslist. There were about 6-7 other people applying at the same time. I finished my application first (probably because I did not have answers to some of the questions!) and a manager came out to speak to me. He was very nice and seemed to be interested in my catering experience. He said the servers average $100 per shift on weekdays and $140 on weekends. He told me that he would be sending all the applications to the main manager who would be seeing people for additional interviews on Tuesday. Again, I'm not holding my breath. It's been a few years since I've waited tables, plus they like people to have "New York experience"...and it seems they will have plenty of people to choose from! There were some questions on the app about alcohol, like what is a dirty martini, why do you decant wine, and I had no idea. Ideally I would love to get a serving job where there is no alcohol, because with it comes a plethora of additional knowledge you are supposed to have! Anyway it was a good experience regardless and it made me realize that it's not hard, and I think if I do it enough I will get something eventually. One guy who was applying (and had his 2 years NYC experience) said he usually gets a job within a few days, but has been trying for 3 weeks now and still has not gotten anything. Sign of the times I guess!

Friday night I met up with my classmates for a night on the town! We went to a little restaurant/pub (of course I did not eat as I had already had my meal at the Brandon)! Here is my favorite picture of the night...

I really like all my classmates! Will be sad when they leave.

Today I have just been resting and taking it easy...it's been awesome! I did get an urge to take a walk and did not want to stay here, so I took the subway downtown. I got off near Ground Zero and walked by it. It looked about the same as when I saw it 6 years ago. They have built some towers nearby (Freedom Towers I think?) but the actual site looks the same. From what I can tell anyway...they have most of it blocked off and there were already tons of people anywhere there was a sightline, and I did not want to see it that bad. I did not take any pictures of it. Too sad and depressing. So then I walked around the financial district. All the streets are very narrow with very tall buildings, including Wall Street! Here it is:

This is the New York Stock Exchange. I don't really know what they do here, but it looks important! After perusing that area, I wandered down to Battery Park where you can see the Statue of Liberty from afar:

After the park, I was headed back to the subway when I passed Trinity Episcopalian Church which is beautiful on the outside...

as well as the inside:

I sat in the pew and rested for a while, and walked around the church. I loved being in there, it was so still, quiet, and peaceful. Then it was back out into the hustle and bustle of the streets so I could head home for dinner and laundry! On a Saturday night...I am so cool! Well, it's bedtime, and I am exhausted! It's raining right now, and I love sleeping to the rain... tomorrow I have to get up and moving early because we are going to try and get tickets for the final performance of the Public Theatre's Twelfth Night in Central Park. But first, here is one last picture from today!

Tiffany & Co., where my future husband is going to purchase my wedding rings! ;-)