Does Anyone Check Up On Me?

I've moved to New York City. I continued working for B, and hating every minute of it. Started working another part time job, a bra and girdle and sex toy shop in the Bronx. I've found my calling in life: to sell sex toys to lesbians and old women who don't speak English. That job lasted all of four months total, when I decided I wanted to work for myself full time again, and not for someone that doesn't care about my skills, enthusiasm or qualifications. C'est la vie.

Which of course means I'm not really making much money, but I do my best to pay my bills on time and occasionally buy new shoes. There's a dog park across the street and new baby trees line my road. My apartment building neighbors are drug dealers, the lamp post across the road proves it with it's 116 pairs of sneakers hanging off. My actual building neighbors are mostly Spanish/Colombian/Dominican and are ridiculously nice to the awkward white girls and their puppy. They get my packages for me, actually tell me they have them by the end of the day, and don't open them, which is unexpected and nice. 

Inwood has the highest population of rats outside of a subway station in all Manhattan. There's something to be proud of. Only saw one cockroach in the apartment in 7 months (to be fair, Jill saw it, I just bought the Raid later that day). I had an internship for a while, it was a good learning experience, I suppose. I'm glad they don't really call me anymore, as the shoots tended to end with nothing for me to show for them other than exhaustion (and one time, first degree burns on my thigh), although I can't really be certain I'm done? No hard feelings. Still met and got to work with some really good people.

I've read more books in 7 months than I have in four years combined. My subway commute to the B has been 2 hours round trip, on a good day. I reduced it to just 40 minutes round trip when I take a bus to and from the Bronx, and now I don't go anywhere I don't want to (at least for the time being). I got unbelievably sick in April, and spent the entire month in a state of awake comatose-ness. It started with a run down cold, it morphed into an inability to breathe which led me to Urgent Care City MD, which led to xrays, blood work, and a CT scan. All tests were relatively negative, they wanted me to go see some GI specialist, but what would have been great would have been if they just diagnosed me with Mono the first time around. We did, however, learn that a) my blood runs like syrup b) my d-dimer numbers are off the charts and not in a good way but c) I do not, in fact, have a blood clot like those numbers suggested d) I have unaccounted-for scarring in my lungs and e) really though, I just had mono. I took antibiotics from the Dominican Republic and they had me right as rain in three days. Doctors are garbage and I no longer trust them.

Jill's family is close and visits often. There's always an excellent dinner and high brow conversation that I've always secretly craved with every meeting. And they like me. I couldn't be happier about the latter. My family has visited 1.5 times and Dad helped me hang my mirror. I have not seen a Broadway play since moving, but I'm hoping to put an end to that sooner than later. I have seen free comedy shows, free gallery shows, and a few fashion shows though so it's not all a bummer. I've even attended my first Bar Mitzvah. Also found a dancey lez-friendly gay bar ( Escuelita) and a few regular bars I enjoy frequenting on drink special nights (specifically Down The Hatch and Cafa Cana). So life, it seems, is finding a natural order and maybe, just maybe, I didn't make a horrible decision after all.

With the spare time I now find myself with, I hope to catch back up on all of the blogs I used to love, as well as the new ones I check in on whenever I have two minutes to myself (which hasn't been often, at all, until about a week ago). I miss doing DIY's and feeling inspired. I relaunched my website and hope to get more photo work in the near future. I have also become a Passion Parties consultant. I have a feeling both photos and toys will work their way back into this blog and maybe I can feel whole again by October.

I've missed you all so much.

That is all.