A lot of annoying things seem to be happening to me lately.

Last night, one of the electrical sockets in my room stopped working. Now, I only have one electrical socket working. I called the property owner this morning, he said that he would call someone to come and check.

All day today, the electrical power has been fluctuating. This morning, my neighbors seemed to be concerned; no one had their music blasting out loud. Unfortunately, they no longer seem concern. A couple of people have their music on now, even with some electrical appliances going from low to off then back on again.

The electric oven doesn’t work, and my microwave oven isn’t working (because of the electric socket). The frozen lasagna I was planning to make is not back in the freezer. Having gone walking today, returned to my shoebox only to discover that I needed to go back out for milk and orange juice; I am now too tired to go out to buy something.

I’ve been waiting since March for my teaching license. Yesterday (while checking the status on the Board of Ed web site), someone there changed my submission date from March 08th, the May 08th. I was told that from the submission date, expect 14 to 16 weeks for my application to be processed.

Add the above annoyances to the ones mentioned in previous blog entries.

I really am not in the mood to do a blog entry, so this entry will be shorter than planned and sloppier. I am just going to try to summarize yesterday and today’s activities.


Yesterday, I met the guy from the personal ad (seeking a friend). To get to the meeting place, I took the D train, and transferred at 125th station for the A train. When the A train arrived, I knew instantly that the car in front of me did not have air-conditioning (which did not bother me), the train car was empty except for two individuals sitting at opposite sides of the train car. Oh, and a woman with two children, who (after I sat down) could have sat anywhere, but choose to sit across the aisle from me…and stare at me. Her son, didn’t stare, but when he thought that I was not looking, would sneak a quick look than looked away. Who was the woman? I had know idea, most likely she was the children’s mother. Who was the boy? It turns out, the boy was one of the wild boys I mentioned in a previous blog entry (sorry I don’t remember the exact entry, but it was the one I complained about a wild 4th grade class, so wild the whole class (minus the 3 or 4 good kids) was taken to the assistant principal’s office. This kid was the first one to have to call a guardian (he chose his grandmother).

The kid and his mother got off the train at 59th street. Instead of showing anger or annoyance, I politely started a conversation, greeted both (the girl was very young), I think they were not expecting me to say anything. After they left, I was able to relax again. Until later. The air-conditioning came on when we reached 14th street, then the train went out of service at Chambers Street, when the local train arrived and everyone was waiting for about 5 or 6 minutes, the same A train went back into service.

We met at the City Hall Tourist Information booth. Our walking route:

We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and back, then down South Street to South Street Seaport, from there we walked to the Staten Island Ferry terminal, and finally to and along a part of Battery Park. So how was it? I enjoyed the walk, and I enjoyed the company. After, we went to Burger King.

When I returned to my shoebox, I got on my rowing machine for about an hour.

Today, I went to my foster father’s place to pick up my mail; he phoned me yesterday to say that there was a letter from the board of education. The letter turned out to by not important. The letter just said that “based on my satisfactory service”, my per diem (substitute) certificate would automatically renewed.

Since I was in a good mood, I felt like walking. My plan was to go down to Battery Park and finish (alone) the walk that was started yesterday. We started walking in Battery Park, but my friend was tired, so we did not finish. Unfortunately, I got on the uptown train instead of the downtown train. Luckily, the train car was air-conditioned, so I did not mind. I got off the train at Allerton station and decided to walk home. I ended up getting lost (walked in a circle before finding the Bronx Zoo). Since today was a “suggested donation” (free) day, I was able to walk through the zoo. Since I was already walking and it was a very hot day, I was too tired to enjoy the animals. I just found the shortest path through the zoo. I will return another time to enjoy the animals.

Once I returned to my shoebox, I realized that I needed milk and juice. Even though I was tired, I went to the store. Now, I am not sure I want to exercise. I haven’t eaten dinner (I bought [and ate]a can of Pringles potato chips).

I attached a photo I took at Bronx River Park (just before I got lost).