My work ethic is out of control.

Can I talk about my day? This day that there was a flood somewhere and the subways were not running (I still haven’t listened to the news about the WHY this happened).Can I vent?

I had to be at work fairly early at 8 am. I awoke to rain and it felt cool but I checked the weather and it said it would go up to 95 degrees! So I dress loose and comfortable, head up to the Carroll St. station and notice way more people waiting for the train than usual. I learn that here is no train. Not one to wait for a crowd I notice the bus coming up Smith Street and it’s pretty empty so I jump on it. I make it to Jay Street and still “no trains”. I decide rather than wait for the trains to run in Brooklyn to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge. People are streaming in both directions. I get to the subway directly across from the bridge on the Manhattan side, still, no trains. I continue walking. I get to Canal Street. The trains are running. The trains are hot and packed. I get to work late, but I am there by 9:30 am. I had an early start. I am basically a slave to people from San Francisco who are just here for the week. I set up and manage their “home textiles” showroom, which is a large space with about twenty beds set up. The beds are piled high with comforters and decorative pillows that the "bed stylists" spent an entire week prepping to make them look this way. I want to lie down but can't. They have no concept of what my morning was like. They are all upset that they couldn’t get a cab 15 blocks from their hotels. Any person from NYC (i.e.: all the “service people”) that I tell I walked in the heat this morning from Brooklyn are like “your kidding, your crazy!” (they are working overtime from the nightshift because the day people haven't gotten in yet due to the transportation problem) The Californians don’t touch their catered lunch because there are too many carbs and I distribute it to all to all the maintenance people in the building, the UPS man, the Fed Ex guy and the to the people on the street when I leave. They have no idea. They are in their bubble of pampered fabulousness. After work I take a bus downtown dazed. I watch all the overheated people sweating on the street from this air conditioned box. Buses can be great for zoning out if you are not in a hurry. I had time to kill. I was meeting a friend in the east village I hadn’t seen in ages. I was supposed to do my “thing with the kids” tonight (I teach art to “at risk kids” in the east village) but it was cancelled due to the MTA madness.

SO I got a pedicure cause my feet were on fire, it was more about soaking them in hot water than anything else. They were still on fire afterwards but they look good and it’s still hot as hell outside. I had a drink at the Holiday Cocktail Lounge on St. Mark's and First Avenue.It was cool and dark in there and all the booths are empty. Exactly where I needed to be. The old Polish man is still there from when I was a teenager, God bless him, he doesn’t look good, but after my hellacious day it was great to see him.

Anyway I haven’t been posting lately because my “Oma” (aka Grandmother) is deathly ill. She is 94 years old and has been living alone in her apartment in Queens up until this point. She is in a hospice and is taking it day by day. She is still lucid but her body is shutting down. I find it hard to be interested in all the happenings in Brooklyn at the moment. The developments keep on developing but I am glad that the city has FINALLY questioned just what the hell Joe Sitt is planning for Coney Island. Relief.

I was visiting Oma the other day and my sister Eileen started telling her about what is happening in my neighborhood. 94 and all my Grandmother totally got what is wrong with the situation, “where will people live?” she said, meaning the REAL people, The people who made the neighborhoods the reason the condo people want to move here. Where are the "service workers" like me and like her before me going to go? I am getting weary of worrying about stuff like this. It's a very real situation that I can't seem to get away from.