On the last day of my spring vacation (on the evening before I was supposed to return to work), I slipped on some water in the hallway near the kitchen. I had slipped 2 times before. The first time, I thought leaving the mops there would stop the leaks. No. The second time, I thought putting newspapers down would soak up the water. Again, no.

I don’t know who I was madder at, me for slipping again, or the landlord for his, “oh, I didn’t know there was a leak” attitude. I called him the very next morning – I was worried that I would be bothering him if I called him at night. During the phone call, the landlord told me that he would handle the water problem. Two days later the water was back on the floor.

Today, the landlord knocked on my door asking about the rent, acting like nothing happened. At that time, I was not interested in talking (or thinking about) the water on the floor. And that leads to the next problem…I got sick.

I think it was either a serious cold or a minor flu. Since I didn’t have a runny nose, I am guessing flu. I think it started on Wednesday when I returned to my shoebox, I felt chilly. At the time, I thought I was cold because there was no heat. Now, as I am typing this I don’t remember what kept me awake (sweats or chills), I just know that I could not sleep. And the next morning, I was a mess. It took every ounce of strength I had to get out of bed, and about a 10 minute break for every action I did. On the train ride, I was minutes from passing out.

Luckily for me, the two wildest boys in the class were absent on Thursday which made the day fairly decent. Although, by the end of the school day I was so weak, I had to lie on the rug in the classroom. After about a 10 or 15 minute break (and a few left over school lunch peaches), I had strength for another half hour. In my shoebox, it was another night of chills and sweats, but the next morning -- I still had the throbbing headache, but I was feeling a little better. Unfortunately for me, the two wild ones decided to show up.

Today (Saturday) I spent the whole day in bed. After a couple of days of no appetite, and no taste buds, my appetite came back. For the last few days, I was too sick to do any cleaning, and my neighbors seemed to not notice. They were their same messy selves. I had to clean the bathroom. There were footprints and clumps of long hair all over the bathroom floor. I don’t mean to be sexist, but shouldn’t a woman be cleaner than 3 men. Once I was able to relax in the bathtub, I tackled the kitchen. My neighbors seemed to have something against an empty sink – There seems to always be dirty dishes there. Aside from the sink, someone made popcorn. And yes, they managed to make a greasy mess. How does someone make a mess with popcorn (other than the trail of dropped popcorn leading out of the kitchen)? Which is worst, someone leaving a trail of popcorn, or someone too blind to see the popcorn and steps on the fallen popcorn? My neighbor has a bad habit of making pots of over-cooked starchy foods, eats it once, then leaves it for weeks (till mold starts to grow). After spending about a half an hour cleaning the stovetop (and the greasy exhaust filter), I decided that I did not want to risk messing up the stove top. Although I had a taste for fried chicken, I decided to bake the chicken. Guess what? The young lady (I am assuming) left pile of something in the oven which started smoking when the oven started to heat up. I had to turn off the oven and clean the oven before I could bake my chicken.

My taste buds have not fully returned, but they returned enough.

Post Date Sunday, May 21, 2006 6:45pm

Final tally. Well, it is the end of the day, and the end of my vacation. Well, what did I accomplish. I cleaned my room. Vacuumed the floor. Organized my clothes. Wrote up a prelimary outline of my lessons for next week. I typed up my homework sheet for the students. Went the a nearby large office supply/ copy center. I copied all of my homework assigments (while I was there, I also stapled and labeled each set for the day of the week the assignment will be given.). Made dinner (canned soup, leftover [baked chicken], wheat toast, and Tang. I cut my own hair. Showered. Cleaned the bathroom (if I don't it usually won't get done).

Sorry for the sloppy writing. It is late. and tomorrow is a work day. Oh, my neigbor didn't ask to use my computer.

The final day. Today is the last day of my vacation. Unfortunately, since I spent all vacation doing basically watching TV, I now have to spend today (a rainy day) running around like a maniac trying to get ready for tomorrow's work day.

So how much did I accomplish yesterday. Not much. After about an hour answering an e-mail, I went to the post office. I went shopping (afterwards) to buy a few cans of "no salt" canned vegetables and a few cans of a health drink that was on sale. Not really the kinds of things to buy when it is raining out.

After visiting my foster father for a little while, I returned to my shoebox. I probably could have done one or two more things on my "to do list", but since it was cold and damp outside (and just plain cold inside my shoebox), I just stayed under my blanket and watched TV.

So, was writing that list of things to do a waste of time? No, not really. I think that if I had not written the list (and posted it), I probably would have just stayed in my shoebox watching TV.

Today I now have to do those things in order to be ready for tomorrow. I also have see if and when my neighbor (the young screamer) will be knocking on my door to ask if she can use my computer to do her homework. All vacation she has been telling about the homework assignment that she has to do that are due on Monday morning. About an hour after I got the landline telephone turned on, she asked if she could use my computer to connect to the internet to research and complete her homework assignments. She must have forgotten that I'd mentioned (several times) that I had a limited amount of internet time (10 hours per month). At the time I had to say no (which is a word I seem to not know how to use). Why? My computer (like my room) was a mess (a lot of junk all over the place). Usually, when I don't think someone will be looking, I am disorganized. But at the same time, I like things a certain way. When someone touches something of mine, I like it returned exactly to way it was given. Of course I would do the same. Unfortunately, people rarely do. If something is messy, they will return it even messier. Sorry, I am getting sidetracked.

Anyway, being the kind of person who does not know how to say no, I spent about an hour or so cleaning up my computer, then offered the young lady my computer to do her homework research. At the time she said cleaning her room was more important. I just so happened to know that the library was opened Saturday and Sunday. She said that she would go on both days to do her homework. Well, yesterday (Saturday), she stayed home giggling and laughing with her boyfriend. That leaves only today. Oh, did I forget to mention that she does not have a library card; she has never been inside the local library, however, she does know where it is. Also, the computers need to be reserved before you can use one. After the way she monoplized the kitchen (with me in it) on a couple of occasions, I know it would not be a good idea to let the young lady use my computer today, especially since I also waited to the last minute to do all the things I should have done days ago.

Morning wake up. This morning my neighbor’s boyfriend returned home around 6:00am. How do I know? His girlfriend (the screamer) started screaming and crying.

“Where were you? Why didn’t you call? I was worried about you.”

I found this tirade a little annoying considering the time, also considering last night (during our marathon [shared] cooking experience) she told me that her boyfriend would be coming home very late.

After the 3 or 4 minute “crying drama”, I then had to listen to the dutiful wife prepare her “husband’s” meal (along with the 3 or 4 times she let her room door slam close as she went back and forth to the microwave in the kitchen [sobbing along the way]). And of course the morning wake up would not be complete without the “hey kitty kitty! Hey kitty kitty!”call. I don’t think my neighbor will be too angry for too long; last night she told me that her boyfriend bought her a pair of sneakers (the day before yesterday), and that he would be buying her another pair of sneakers today so that they can have identical sneakers. Enough about my neighbors (oh, how I wish that were true).

Today my plan is to do about 20 minutes on my rowing machine. Take a shower. Clean up my room. Do a preliminary outline of my lessons for next week. Do a little shopping for the few things I couldn’t get at the store in this neighborhood. Drop off some macaroni salad for my foster father. Cut my hair. And finally take a bath.

By writing my plans out, hopefully, I will be able to accomplish most of the things on my to do list.

Oh, did I forget to mention that is suppose to rain (heavily) for today and tomorrow. Perfect weather for staying in bed and watching TV.

April 21, 2006

A quickly prepared meal (that was anything but). My vacation is rapidly coming to a close. Today I did not do anything that I planned to do. After watching several hours of television (mostly court programs), I went to a photo copy center to make a few copies. I had a week and a half to do my planning, but once again, I’ve let procrastination get the better of me. I now have Saturday and Sunday to do my lesson plans for next week.

After making my copies, I went food shopping. I bought about 4 or 5 bags of groceries. I wanted to buy enough to last most of the month. Also, since my macaroni & cheese was so well received, I decided to make macaroni salad. My plan was to bake some chicken, and while the chicken was baking, I would divide up the various meats I bought and put them into single servings bags. Once frozen, I only need to defrost the single servings to cook (single servings meaning enough to last me for a couple of days). It is cheaper to buy meat in bulk (or family size), and divide it into smaller portions. By the time I finished dividing up the meat; I could then cook the rice, and make the macaroni salad, all this while the chicken was baking (anyway, that was the plan).

So, is there a point to this rambling?

The chicken was baking, the rice was making, and everything was going according to plan (that is, until my neighbor came into the kitchen). My neighbor (the screamer) came into the kitchen while I was cooking. I told her that I would be finished in a half an hour (30 minutes). She said, “oh, no rush”. But then, she starts preparing lasagna. Originally, she said that she only needed one pot to boil the pasta. I let her get the pot, but before I knew it, she was in full cooking mode. I purposefully stood and watch her hoping she would get the message. After about 10 minutes (of me , she said something to the affect of “oh, I didn’t know you were waiting for me. You should have said something”.

Although the conversation was very nice, I would have preferred to have the kitchen all to myself. I could have finished in 30 minutes. Unfortunately, sharing the kitchen added another 2 hours to the time I was planning to spend in the kitchen.

I attached a photo of my finished product. For dinner, I made bake chicken, yellow rice, macaroni salad, and kale. The orange drink in the photo is Tang. After I post this blog entry, I will go into the kitchen to wash my dishes.

My computer is acting up. I was not able to upload the photo. I will try again at another time.

I'm connected. I am now writing this brief blog entry from my shoebox. The telephone company rep stopped by today to turn on the phone. I now have access to the internet. I am currently using one of the free internet service providers. This company alllows 10 free hours per month access to the internet. I will probably upgrade at another time. It is late. I just wanted to briefly say hello.

April 19, 2006

Not a good morning start. While I am at the internet café, I thought that I would briefly write about my morning.

About 4 o’ clock in the morning my neighbors returned home. How did I know? They were arguing. Were they loud enough for me to hear? Yes! So, am I able to give an example of what they were shouting about at 4 in the morning? Sure!

"Those are my skittles (candy). Give them to me!"

I got so annoyed. I had to do my reminder (that other people live here) walk (to the bathroom). Once they heard me, the argument stop. My other neighbor either pretends he doesn't hear them (his room is next to theirs), or he cranks up his music to drown out the screaming and yelling. Sorry, sidetracked.

About 10 minutes later the young lady came out of her room calling out to the stray cat that she has adopted, “Hey kitty kitty!”. She turned on the hallway light which is like turning on a light in my room. Due to the crappy way my door was installed -- an inch at the top and the bottom of the door brings all that light into my room.

Later in the morning, I thought I waited enough for everyone to use the bathroom before I took my shower. However, I did not wait long enough. No sooner was I in the shower and soaped up, the water turned ice cold.

Later, my neighbor’s daughter also took the time to try and chat with me.

Her: :“So Mr. Coffee man making your morning coffee?
Me: No, it’s green tea.
Her: Oh, I love green tea! I drink green tea too. ...Is that oatmeal?
Me: Yes, would you like some?
Her: No, I already ate breakfast.

Am I becoming an old geezer for not wanting to talk to a 9 year old girl?

Leaving this blog entry now would make (I think) a good entry in terms of maintaining a consistent tone. But, if I am to be honest, I have to admit that my day (despite not doing much other than watching TV) was an okay day. I did manage to use my rowing machine and finally noticed that I am finally starting to lose some weight(which amazes me considering how much junkfood I eat [see previous blog entry that mentioned my dinner]). The weather was also very nice. After I post this entry, I will stop by the post office (to send off a long over due thank you souvenir), then I will drop off some of my macaroni & cheese for my foster father and his lady friend. His lady friend helped me with some suggestions for making the dish. The directions on the box seemed a little strange. 5 cups of milk for a half a box of macaroni.

Until next time… Oh, I almost forgot. Tomorrow the telephone company will be setting up a phone line for me in my shoe box. That means I will have internet connection at home. And since I bought the unlimited calling plan, I will probably have a certain neighbor visiting me more frequently. Lucky me.

April 18, 2006

Not much to write about. I stayed in bed (watching TV) for most of the day. I finally baked the macaroni & cheese (see the attached photo). I seemed to have had the floor to myself. Both of my neighbors were out for most of the day. It was a nice quiet day today. The weather was also very nice today. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy it like I should have. I only went out to buy a cheese grater and milk for the macaroni & cheese.

My neighbor (the guy with his visiting daughter) returned around 10pm. Any problems? Again, you must be a new reader. About 5 minutes after returning, the guy went into the kitchen, and his daughter followed him into the kitchen (locking his room door). At first I really did not want to get involved, but I ended up getting involved. The guy was planning to either pick the lock, or break down the door. He was already in a bad mood because apparently his daughter at some point in the day was crawling on the floor in the subway station. No, I am not making this up. He was also annoyed that she was spending too much time chasing the stray cat (and not paying attention). Sorry, I am getting sidetracked.

Since I’d been in a similar situation (I didn’t tell him that), I offered to help. I thought that since my door was so cheaply constructed, that his door would be the same. Surprised, surprise, it was not. After trying to push and pick his lock, his door did not budge. Some people have all the luck. I volunteered to call the building owner on my cell phone(my neighbor doesn't have a phone). The owner said that he would be over in a few minutes. While the guy went to wait out front, his daughter went into the kitchen to cook. When the owner arrived, the guy was nowhere to be found. The owner was pretending that he has to do an incredible search in his bag of keys. Since the guy wasn’t there, the owner seems (to me to be stalling) going on and on about how he might not have the key. I went into the kitchen to suggest to the daughter that she stand by her father’s room door to offer assistance if needed. Actually, I thought if the daughter was there, that would be enough for the owner to do his “oh, I found the key. Wow, that was lucky. Isn’t it great that the landlord has a spare key to all of the rooms.”

Would you believe the girl tells me to wait a minute (while she is seasoning the meat her father was about to cook). I don’t know why, I just got incredibly annoyed with the girl. I told her she needed to stop what she was doing and go stand next to her father’s door while the owner was trying to help her father and her. I tried to keep my tone polite, but I don’t think I was successful. About 3 or 4 minutes later, my neighbor returned. And less than a minute later, the owner did his “oh, I found the key. Man, you are one lucky dude.
What a surprised!!!

April 17, 2006

Well, it has been a while. Part of the reason for the infrequent entries is that while I am living in the Bronx, the internet café I’ve been using is located in Manhattan. I hope to change that by getting an internet connection. Originally, I refused to get a landline phone. Since I had a cell phone, I did not see the benefit of paying about 20 or 30 dollars in phone fees and taxes when I really wouldn’t be using the phone. But having an internet connection at home might be worth the cost of paying for a landline phone. So today I went to the public library to look through the phone book to find out about getting a phone. By the time I finished in the library, it was too late to call the local phone company, so I’ll do it tomorrow. Other than that, how is my adventure in the shoebox going?

Yesterday while sleeping in the afternoon (I am currently on vacation), my neighbor banged on my door to show me the visitors in the hallway. When I got to the hallway, I found about 50 or 60 winged insects crawling up the wall (another 20 or 30 were crawling all over the bathroom). I thought the insects were termites, but the building owner informed me that the insects were ants not termites. And, it was normal for ants to come out at this time of year. His suggestion? Just sweep them into the hallway with a broom and prevent them from getting into my room. He said that he would stop by later, but he never did. While I was complaining to one of my neighbors (the young lady who screams a lot), she told me a little bit about conditions in the building before I moved in (broken pipes, mice, rats etc…). The young lady was very nice. It amazes me that someone who seems so nice can cuss the way she does when she is in her room with her boyfriend. Oh, she has finally stopped calling the guy she is living with her “husband”. Although, today, the guy referred to her as his wife…strange. She also gave me a little bit of a tour around the building (and described a few of the previous tenants). I attached a few photos of my (shared) living areas.

As I typed this, I just realized that I should have taken more photos of the building, but I wasn’t thinking at the time. Mainly, I took a photo of the hot water tank. I was shocked when I saw it. Although I should not have been shocked, the size of the tank explains why the water turns cold after about 10 minutes. The tank is 40 gallons in size. That tank supplies hot water to the entire 3 floor building. On my floor there are 4 people. The young lady told me that there were 10 people on the second floor, and a family living on the 3rd floor. Oh, I almost forgot…that tank also supplies (I think) the steam for all of the radiators in the building. Maybe I should rename this blog “ the ghetto life”. Need more?



Today, I was planning to make some baked macaroni & cheese. I went into the kitchen to check the stove availability (I also included a photo of the kitchen), the young lady was already in the process of making lasagna. I told myself that she would probably be finished when I returned from shopping. I returned from shopping. No sooner was I in my shoebox, there was a knock on the door. A girl was at the door. I immediately recognized her from a photo that I’d seen. She was the daughter of my other neighbor, the 40 year old guy who asked me to write him a reference letter after meeting me a couple of times within a few weeks (check a previous blog entry). Although the girl (about 9 years old [I think]) was a very nice young girl, I was a little annoyed how casual she was with me (an adult she had never met until that moment). This situation eerily reminds me of my encounter with my foster father’s lady friend’s son’s daughter (see a previous blog entry).

Sorry, I got sidetrack. Back to the present…

When she knocked on my door, my automatic reply was come in. Am I wrong to find it strange for a 9 year old girl to knock on a stranger’s door to come in and start looking around, complimenting me on how my room was arranged. She visually examined my shelves, my table, then she left. That was it. Am I being old-fashion to be annoyed by the above visit by the 9 year old girl?

Is that all? Ha! You must be a new reader to this blog.

Moments later, I went into the kitchen to ask my neighbor (the young lady) how she prepares bake macaroni & cheese. Would you believe the 9 year old girl actual stood in between myself and the other “adult” offering her suggestions on how to make macaroni & cheese. She just butted in like she was an adult. I immediately thought about when I was that age. I would never, never have interrupted an adult conversation. I am not sure which is more upsetting, the behavior of the 9 year old girl, or my old geezerly attitude. I sound like one of those gray-haired old men complaining about the olden days. Oh well…

On my way out, the father was on the stoop waiting for his friends (I guess). Moments later, the father and his 2 or 3 friends are having a loud conversation on the stoop, and the 9 year old girl was chasing the stray cat (my other neighbor seems to have adopted) back and forth, and I was saying to myself, “so this is life in the ghetto”. There were a couple of other examples, but I drop those. I think this entry is long enough.

P.S. – So how did my baked macaroni & cheese come out? I never got to it. After neighbor #1 finished her lasagna, neighbor #2 took over the kitchen (with daughter). I got into the kitchen about 10pm, by then, I was not hungry. While I was waiting for the kitchen I ate a half a bag of Doritos, and a couple of oatmeal cookies. I’ll cook the mac and cheese tomorrow.

April 2, 2006

Well, I finally did it! It took much longer than I thought it would. What? I finally made onigiri (rice balls). In a previous entry, I’d mentioned that I went to a Japanese food store here in New York. I bought Japanese rice and onigiri seasoning. I will attach a photo of my finished work. The directions were written in Japanese, so I had to do some guessing. It turns out, that 1 cup of rice only makes about 3 rice balls. I’ll take one rice ball with me to school each day. It will be good (I hope) to not have run to the corner junk food store, when I want a snack (or lunch) during my work day. Sorry, it is late, so I have to keep this entry short. I had a 4 day weekend! Since Thursday and Friday were teacher professional development there were no students in schools, so no need for a substitute teacher. I was happy to have those two days, but I know when payday comes, I won’t be happy. I will have lost 2 days pay. Also, the week after next is the start of spring vacation, so I will be out of work (vacation!?!) for about a week and a half. Since I’ve returned to the US, I noticed that there are more vacations.

Well, it is late. Until next time…

Test Results. Well, I just checked my (unofficial) test results for the New York State Teaching Examination.

The Minimum Passing Score was 220 for the whole test (as well as for the individual parts). There were 8 parts of the test (including a short essay response question).

So, how did I do?


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I Passed!!!

My (unoffical) score is 241. Again, the minimum passing score is 220. My score was low, but considering that I had not studied, I should not be complaining.

So now, all of the requirements have been met. My application for a New York State Teaching license has been mailed off. Tomorrow and Friday are teacher work days, but the students won't be in school. Since the kids won't be in school, I won't be in school. I have a four-day weekend starting tomorrow. Now, I am happy to have a four-day weekend, but when payday arrives, I won't be happy because I am losing 2 days of pay.

It is getting late. I am going to end this entry now. Since I am tired, I am just going to order some Chinese Take Out (my celebration dinner).

March 26, 2006
She’s Baaack!!! Well, it didn’t last long. My sreaming neighbor has returned. Although, I should be honest, she did not scream today.

I am still in a bit of shock. This young lady made that big hysterical scene (about the broken cell phone), left with about 2 or 3 large trash bags (full of clothes), and I think at least two boxes. And she returns a day later. She returned about 12 midnight (bags and boxes). Strange! The loving couple is back to playing husband and wife. Enough about them.

This weekend was my clean my shoebox weekend. Yesterday, was rearranging the furniture. I got tired of reaching over the TV to open the window. Today was organized the mess day. I only got halfway through. I had to stop because tomorrow is workday.

Oh, tomorrow is also the day I get my Teaching Exam test results. Actually, if I had internet connection, I probably could have check the results sooner.

Until tomorrow…

March 23, 2006

Stress. Stress. Stress, and more stress. Quick entry. Today, I started a new substitute assignment at a previous school. About midday, I realized that I’d left my keys (locked) in my shoebox of a home. I thought that it would not be difficult to just go to a lock shop and have someone open the door. After work, I went to the lock shop. First, I was told that they would not open the door without the lease holder of the building present. I was also told that it would cost me about $85 dollars to have the door opened. The shop worker seemed a little bit unconcerned that I was locked out. He just kept saying that he really did not have time to do anything especially at that time (about 5:20pm) because “his guys were about to go home. The place closed at 6pm. Since my apartment contact guy (the guy I pay the rent to) would take about 20 minutes to reach the apartment building, the lock shop guy just got annoyed and said that he could not help me.

I decided to go to my shoebox and see if I could open the door (without doing a lot of damage). My plan was to ring the doorbell for my floor and have one of my neighbors let me in the building. Since the apartments seemed so sloppily put together, I thought I might be able to figure a way to open the door.

Long story short. Once in the building, it took me all of 3 seconds to open my (locked) room door with my Metro train card.

So, was that the end my stress? Come on, where have you been?

About 2 hours later, my floor neighbors (the bickering couple) started playing loudly with cell phones (laughing and talking loudly)…then the guy breaks the young lady’s cell phone. She flips!!! She was screaming and hollering!!! She was crying hysterically. You would have thought that the guy had murdered a child. After a couple of minutes, I can’t take any more. I knock on their door asking if everything is okay. The guy was annoyed that I knocked on his door and told me to mind my business. I stood in the hallway not sure what to do. I listened to the guy offer to give the young lady his cell phone. He tells her to just take out her information SIMS phone card and put it into his phone. She says no, his phone is a piece of sh*t, and continues to scream (and cry). She knocks over something big threatening to break everything of his. Finally, he tells her to pack her sh*t and get the f**k out of his house. He leaves the building. And the young lady… continues her sreaming hollering hysterical tantrum. Again, she knocks over something big. It sounded like she was trying to break anything that wasn’t nailed down. A few minutes later, she manages to call on another cell phone (or was it the boyfriend’s phone) a friend to complain about what had just happened. She said that she would move to Brooklyn to live with a cousin. I would like to say that the young lady actually seems to be very nice, just very immature at times…like now.

Later the guy returns. He seems to be helping the young lady pack. Is she really leaving? Only time will tell.

Waiting for my unlimited Metro card to reactivate. I just spent about 30 minutes writing a blog entry here at the local internet cafe. I clicked spell check and ended up losing everything I'd just written.

Long story short. Today I didn't work, so I finally sent off my application for my new New York State teaching license. After about a week of procrastinating, I finally finished filling out the application. I had to have my signature notorized, and made copies of all the documents. For lunch I ate a slice of pizza. Now, I am about to return to my shoebox and rearrange everything to try to do something with those extra boxes I brought into my shoebox-sized room. I also want the change the furniture around. I don't like not being able to get to the window.

Just a quick note. I just added some new photos to my other web site. Yes, the photos are a bit out dated, but if you are interested, please feel free to stop by to take a look. The first set (of 3 photos) are from the November 2005 New York City Marathon. The route of the race goes past my father's apartment.

The second set of photos (15) are a few of the photos taken at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I was a block away from the route. However, the balloons were big enough to see.

If you remember (yes, I know it was a while ago), one of the balloons collapsed. That balloon (the M&M) balloon was deflated right in front of me.

March 13, 2006

I think I’ve asked this question before. Do you ever get the feeling you are being punished for some unknown crime? Today, my day started out nicely. I was originally given a cluster teacher’s schedule to cover. I like cluster schedules because I am in and out of a few classes for the day. Today, just as soon as I was planning my cluster schedule, I walked passed the assistant principal’s office. She stopped me and informed me that she was trying to contact me but she couldn’t find me. I suppose I could mention the loudspeaker that could have been used, or I could have mention that I was given a cluster schedule (and I was following that schedule). Anyway, my schedule was changed. I was assigned to sub for one of the team teacher’s in the wild (two teacher) class I’d mentioned in previous blog entries.

It is getting late, so let me just jump to the main parts of this entry. After school, I went to the post office near the school. I ended up waiting on line for about 30 minutes to get a money order for my teaching license application.

When I arrived at my shoebox, my plan was to go to the Laundromat to wash the few clothes that I had not washed over the weekend. Instead of walking to the big Laundromat about three blocks away, I thought that I could save time by going to the very small Laundromat in the building next to the apartment building I live in. To make a long story short, one of the machines I used started leaking (and the Laundromat worker) did not know why. She gave me quarters to do my wash over. What should have been about an hour wash and dry, turned into about an hour and a half. And my clothes (after 24 minutes) still were not dry, but I did not have any more quarters, so now my shoebox on top of having boxes and bags all over, I now have semi-wet clothes over my futon. So, was it a big load of laundry? No. About a week’s worth of underclothes, a towel, and pajamas.

My plan this evening was to try making onigiri (rice balls), but my neighbor decided to make lasagna. By 9pm, she was not finished. I think she started about 7pm. I got tired of waiting, so I had to settle for a can of soup. No sooner did I finish eating when my upstairs neighbor had a loud shouting argument with his girlfriend. And would you believe my floor neighbors (the bickering buddies) actual comment about how they (the upstairs guy and his girlfriend) are always arguing. About 10 minutes later, then the bickering buddies (sorry, married couple) on my floor started arguing. I think it started because he wanted to use her cell phone.

Now it is almost 10pm and I have done nothing that I wanted to do. My plan was to get on my rowing machine for at least 20 minutes. Soak in the bathtub. Iron my clothes for tomorrow. Make rice balls (I am tired of going into the corner stores and seeing [and buying] only junk food.

I could have added more details, but it is getting late.

March 12, 2006

Hello Pen Pal. Well, it has been about 2 weeks since my last posting. Sorry for the delay. You did not miss much. I could have written about inconsiderate neighbors, but then, I think that you have a pretty good idea what I am going through. So, anything else to write about?

Last Tuesday, I completed my final requirement for getting my New York State teaching license (assuming that I passed the CST teaching examination). I waited until payday (Friday) to get the $100 postal money order for the application fee for the license (unfortunately, I didn’t leave school before the post office closed). On Monday (I hope), I will send everything up to the state capital (Albany). If all goes well, I should have my teaching license in a couple of months. I’ll let you know if I hit any bumps in the road along the way.

Yesterday, my plan was to get the remainder of my things from my foster father’s apartment, next Monday, he will be getting his apartment painted. After getting the remainder of my things, I decided to go to the bookstore. Since the movie “Broke Back Mountain” won a couple of Academy Awards, I thought I would read the book (before I saw the movie). It turns out the movie was based on a short story. I ended up buying the paperback book for about $10. In hindsight, I wasted my money. I finished reading the book in about 15 or 20 minutes (that included reading some parts more than once). After going to the bookstore, I went to Burger King. Actually, I could have finished the whole book in Burger King, but since the book was so short, I’d decided to wait until I returned to my shoebox. Speaking of shoebox.

Now that I have six more boxes, and about 3 bags of more things in the room, it is now even more of a shoebox. For the last couple of weeks, I have been feeling more like a caged hamster, now that feeling is getting more intense. Add the (wall shakingly) loud music blaring, and the child-like behavior of my neighbors, and the feeling of being a hamster is rapidly changing to the feeling of being a caged lab mouse. For the last couple of weeks, I have not been in the mood to do any blog entries (until today).

After returning from Washington DC, I had just gotten over a cold, and I think I caught another cold from the loud young lady who came in the kitchen hacking and coughing while I was cooking my dinner. The previous night, her and her boyfriend (oh, excuse me…her husband) were in the kitchen for about 2 hours. That was the night I had spent about $80 dollars worth of food, so that I could stop eating out. By the time they were finished, it was late, so I only opened up a can of soup. The next evening, I did managed to get into the kitchen, but as I am cooking the young lady comes in to make a pitcher of ice tea for her…husband. 24 hours later, I was (also) hacking and coughing up a storm.

Sorry, I got sidetracked. Yesterday, I also went to a Japanese Food store here in Manhattan. I was just planning to buy a few items. And, I did. See the attached photo. I ended up spending $39.04 on 16 items. Actually, most of the items, I could have bought in the 100 yen store if I was still in Japan.

Yesterday was my big test day. While I was in Japan, my New York State (provisional) teaching license expired. When I returned to New York after about a 6 year absence, I thought I would have no problem renewing my license, but “Oh, how wrong I was!”

Months of waiting, procrastinating, and playing run-around, I finally had my moment. And, because I am such a procrastinator, I will most likely be taking the 4 hour (with no break) examination again. Even though, I downloaded the study guide weeks ago, I barely studied it. I did manage to read through the guide at least once. Kind of a very bad example to set for the students I teach. Hopefully, none of them are reading this blog.

So how was the test? Well, to my surprise, I think that I might have passed (most likely with a score of 220[the minimum passing score]). It will be a bit embarrassed a month from now when I get my results (and I fail). I’ve told myself that if I do fail, I will study next time, and then, I will have a better idea of the test. Is there anyone reading this, believing this? No, I didn’t think so. Anyway back to the test day.

The day started of pretty relaxed, which surprised me. Having not studied, and knowing the difficulty I’ve been having getting my teaching license, I wasn’t the least bit nervous. Usually, I would be nervous in this situation (and stressed). I arrived at the testing site about 10 minutes before the doors were supposed to be opened (1pm). The test starting time was 2pm. The location of the test was at the Jacob Javits Convention Center. The place was huge! The convention center is about 4 city blocks in size. The room of the teacher’s examination was about one city block (or about half a block).There were also at least 2 (possible more) other events taking place at the same time. The other events were a comic book convention and a travel convention. Originally, I thought that it was strange to have a teacher’s examination in a place with other events going on, but the convention center was actually a very good place. Inside the room, there were no distractions from the other events. The room itself was huge. I wish I could have taken pictures, but no electronic devices were allowed. All cell phones had to be collected. They (the testing administrators) really kept pushing for all cell phones to be turned it. Although I did turn in my cell phone, I am positive, most of the test takers (there must have been several hundreds test takers.

As I wrote above, the test was 4 hours long. But most of the test takers did not need the whole four hours, but those of us lazy procrastinators, we did use the whole 4 hours (without a lunch break). We needed to bring; two photo identifications that had our signature, the admission ticket, and of course, several No. 2 pencils. There were about 20 or 30 different teaching tests offered. I had to take the multi-subject test. As an elementary school teacher, the test was designed to test the testees knowledge of a variety of subjects. Once we were seated, our thumb prints were taken. The directions were read, and the test began.

Unlike student exams, the time was not divided for pacing purposes. I guess the testers felt that since we were teachers (or would be teachers), we should know how to pace ourselves. Once the test started, we could basically, start anywhere in the book, and return to any part of the book. Originally, I thought there were 150 questions because there were 150 answer spaces on the answer sheet, so I paced myself by setting the goal of finishing 75 questions by the 2 hour mark. Yes, I knew about the essay part. I thought the questions at the end would require less time to answer, leaving enough time for the 2 paragraph essay. My writing skills are poor, so I was not planning to spend any more time than was necessary. Once I reached about the 80th question, I noticed that the next page showed the directions for the writing portion of the test. It was then that I discovered that the test only had 90 questions. At this point, I had about an hour and a half remaining. It was at this point that I also started to get cramps. I think sitting for a long time, and not eating something since breakfast may have been the cause. I also started getting a little nervous.

The test seemed a little…not easy, but …for lack of a better word…reasonable. Some questions did seem easy. But, I started to worry that I (who is not the brightest person) should be struggling more with the major examination. One guy must have been stressed. He started yelling that there was too much noise going on (with people walking on the concrete floor, over the metal plates). I did find it a little noisy with the testing assistants walking back and forth, but not enough noisy to be distracting. I did find it a little annoying that the woman assigned to my area had heels on, even though the notice on the admission ticket said to wear "soft-heel shoes for the testees. I guess the suggestion did not apply to the testing assistants.

Back to the test. The only part I am positive I bombed on was the Math. Once the questions started asking about x and y axis, I was reduced to my old stand-by, “enni minni myni moe”.

I am really hoping the reason the test seemed… reasonable was me having about 10 years of teaching experience.

What about the essay part? Basically, we had to give our analysis of a students reading ability from the example given. Luckily, the example was almost identical to the example given in the study guide (the part I read on the train ride to the test). A paragraph of a short story was given with the anecdotal notes of the students mistakes, and a short dialog/transcript of the student talking about what he(she) understood about the story he(she) read. The test even gave the suggested areas of weaknesses. Basically, I did what I’ve always told my students to do, turn the question into your answer and pull out as much of the information from the data given to write the essay.

So, did I pass the test? Like I wrote above, I think I did. However, I won’t know the results until March 27th. If I failed the next test is April 8th with late registration between March 22nd and March 31st. The next tests after April are June 10th and July 22nd. Hopefully, I’ve done my share of test taking for my teaching license.

Hello Pen pal. Just a quick entry. After wasting the last few (vacation) days, I've finally added a little order to my shoebox. I still have a lot to do. I mainly put the big things where I wanted. However, I still have to organize the little things. Mostly, the little things are either in the closet, or stuffed into the wired cube storage unit (seen on the left of the photo).

Since the room is so, so very small, I bought a coffee table to use as my desk. I thought that the coffee table would make the room seem bigger than a regular sized desk.

Whatever happened to peace and quiet?

Just a quick addition to the prewritten entry that I am about the post. On the train ride here would you believe that a group of musicans (???) got on the train and started playing the drums. Then one of them walked the traincar looking for tips. Then, no sooner do they leave, a guy starts talking out loud to either himself or the entire traincar.

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February 21, 2006

Hello Pen pal. Just a brief recount of yesterday’s President’s Day holiday. My plan was to study for the teacher’s exam (coming this Saturday), then leave my shoebox to maybe do a little shopping (trying to make my shoebox look less like a shoebox.

The bickering couple were at it in force all morning, they continued arguing off and on. Finally, around 12 midday, I heard what I believed to be the finale; “But you broke up with me”. That statement was followed by sobs and packing. About 30 minutes later, “No, I ain’t cooking you dinner”. And…the sounds and smell of hamburgers being cooked. After listening to arguing all morning, I was in no mood to do anything. When I heard the front door closed, suddenly I felt a little better. Until…

My other neighbor (on my floor) begin blasting his stereo as loud as it could possible go. Apparently (he confided in me), he relaxes by listening to his music loud. I sort of accepted this fact, but what annoyed more was that a few minutes later…he fell asleep with the music blasting. So he was not even listening to the music. Later, he felt comfortable asking to borrow my cell phone. Told me that he ask a girl to call him back giving her my phone number. Later, after requesting my phone 4 or 5 more times, I receive a phone call from a young lady asking to speak to my neighbor. I take the phone to him telling him it is the young lady that he called earlier (worrying that she would not return his call). After he finished on the…on my phone, he tells me that the young lady was another one (not the one he was talking to me about). He then asks to use my phone again. Later he tells me that this girl is going to call him back on my phone, after she asks her mother’s permission about something (he is 44, she is 24). When I return to find out if the phone conversation finishes, he tells me that she is going to call him back again. He puts the phone in his pocket, and asks if the phone rings loudly. I wait to see how long he keeps my phone. After about an hour (of getting increasingly annoyed), I finally go to his room to find out what happened. It turned out, she did not return his call, but I now had 8 minutes left on my pre-paid phone.