no new news

job situation?

::crickets chirping::

change of topic....last weekend I went to prospect park.....an AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL park in central brooklyn. bordered by an equally beautiful neighborhood, Park Slope. it was an absolute blast sledding with my friends Geoff and Michele. A huge snow-filled field with real hills.....nothing the likes i've seen in oklahoma.

here are some links to some videos from the day:

btw, i have a new best friend and its name is yelp.com

no new updates really.

gonna try this new format of typing, inspired by http://www.aricwithana.com/

he's a great guy, also from oklahoma somewhere in between egypt and ethiopia right now. hopefully he makes it all the way down to south africa.

there is a blizzard today and it is beautiful. i didn't mind that my shoes and pants were sopping wet after walking to the bank.

didn't like how i looked like tammy faye bakker when i got home though (must buy ski goggles). then i hung my coat in the shower to drip dry and it scared the living daylight out of my roommate. she thought it was a person in there.

here are some pics that show my neighborhood today, thanks to http://www.newyorkshitty.com/






went to a testing center yesterday to see if i could get a census job.

don't think i can be an enumerator (those people that knock on all the doors in the neighborhood when everyone is sitting down to dinner).most of the neighborhood residents are polish and i can only imagine what i would think people with thick accents are saying with my hearing loss. i mishear my own friends' words all the time.

took a standardized test (btw, i love standardized tests. i also love being the first person to finish their test too). made a 98 on it. thank you christian heritage academy for having us constantly take the iowa standardized test.

hopefully i get a nice office job and can save up some money to take some courses at FIT or do an internship somewhere.

anyways, miss all of you guys and love you. i'm livin on a prayer and a depleting budget, keep me in your prayers.

run on sentences

last night was great, went to see a friend (drummer for NYCsmoke http://www.myspace.com/NYCSmoke ) play in Williamsburg at the Trash Bar. great show, met some great folks, and then nothing better than walking out of the place and seeing beautiful delicate snow waltzing down. it's amazing what two inches of snow does on a clear soft night in brooklyn, everything glowed and it was quiet and peaceful. geoff and michele giggling and having a snowball fight while we walked to the subway stop. impromptu stop for amazing falafel sandwiches on the way there. made it home without getting lost (note to self: expect subway construction late night, no matter where in NYC you are). got off in Greenpoint and walked home and had one of those moments where you feel so at one with yourself and everybreath rejuvenates every cell and membrane of your body. no cars, no throngs of people, i could hear the snow squishing underneath my feet (which is quite a feat). a rare moment in NYC where the streets are quiet.

and then the falafel you had the night before makes you sick in the morning.....maybe pickled onions and pickles were a bad call at 1 am. went to one interview, seemed to go well. rode subway for 45 minutes (which is a LONG time....especially with no ipod, reading material, and you're nauseated and think you're going to throw up. thank goodness for mint orbit gum) to jamaica, queens for a 1pm open call at the career workforce center. get there and realize i'm at the wrong one, it's actually in harlem. ride another 45 minutes to go to an open call at a spanish restaurant on the lower east side. note on door "open call CANCELLED."

nice. waste of a day. however i did enough walking to burn off all the cocoa pebbles i've stocked up on (the 3 for $4) and it was cold enough to break out the trendy faux fur wayne coyne earflap hat.

Here is my roommate katie modeling the trendy faux fur wayne coyne earflap hat.

So while everyone is staying bundled up in OKC for IceStorm 2010, I'm getting ready for a "welcome home" party at the Black Iris, in the fort greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. A Mediterranean BYOB place with amazing homemade pita bread. So delicious.

Still no job yet but definitely looking looking looking. Went to 4 open interviews on Wednesday. Everytime someone looks at my resume they say, "Iron Starr (or Bohemian Spirit).....where's that?" (Oklahoma City) "Oklahoma City? oh...well we will call you by the end of this week." Gets familiar to hear that but not any better.

Taking the subway home, I actually ran into someone I knew from OKC.....how random is that? In a city of millions and millions of people I see someone I know my first week here. Astonishing.

I'm staying in a neighborhood of Brooklyn called Greenpoint. Very lovely neighborhood, it is a Polish neighborhood with the highest amount of Polish-Americans, outside of Chicago, in the U.S. This neighborhood is pretty much 50% families/50% hipsters (for lack of a better term and no, I'm not one. At least I don't call myself one but no self-respecting hipster would call themself one either so I am just am). I'm two minutes away from the subway, grocery store, laundromat, and expensive mexican food.

Talk about expensive, I went to the store to get my favorite degree deodorant and it was $10. A box of cereal is almost 5 bones. Cocoa/Fruity Pebbles were on sale, 3 for $4. I'm eating alot of pebbles for awhile.

I'm really excited to be here and I know that I'll be ready to fall in love with it when I get a job. Not letting myself fall in love yet until I know that NY and I are in a commited relationship.

No sleep till Brooklyn!

Long time in updating this page but I've been busy working working since I got back from Japan. Some things that have happened along the way was my sister had her second daughter, Paige Wesley Caddell! She is absolutely adorable, and her big sister Maddie is just in love with her. Maddie wants to hold Paige 24/7. We are not sure if Paige will feel the need to learn to crawl/walk anytime soon.

Word of advice on grooming, do NOT q-tip your ears....not worth it. I q-tipped my ears aggressively and that combined with the extreme humidity and a flaking piece on my hearing aid caused a massive ear infection. One of the worst pains I've ever felt in my life. Since I only have hearing in one ear, it was very difficult for me. My "good" ear was so swollen I could hear nothing for a week. No birds chirping nothing. A drumset could have been played directly behind me and I would have had no idea. I dealt with it the best I could, it definitely was trying but I knew that if I lost all my hearing then that is what is. More than anything, I think I wanted the pain to go away, I didn't care if my hearing came back or not! So after 7 different medications, 3 doctor's visit, and ER visit, I was okay. Thanks to Dr. Mark Woods at the Hough Ear Institute, he is wonderful.

October I went to visit Katie, one of my UCO friends, in NYC. This was my third time to visit her and her roommate Jessica and my first time to see their new apartment. Jessica had been in NYC the past 3 years and was moving to Florida so Katie needed a new roommate. With some encouragement, I decided to make the jump to New York that I've always wanted to make. Went on several interviews while I was there Oct./Nov., started the job hunt.

The rest of November and December went by super fast. Work at Iron Starr was crazy, record weeks almost every single week.

So here I am in NYC.....moved here on January 19th....looking for a job, counting my pennies (seriously). But really excited and really looking forward to what happens next. Got my iPod out like every other NYer and ready to go.