Friday, November 23, 2007

Plus Ça Change ...

Thanksgiving pretty much came and went here at From The Ashes HQ. I did get the day off, but a single day doesn't really allow me to spend the money on a one day flight back to Buffalo and an early morning flight back to work. Besides, my bosses are so wishy-washy and passive aggressive most of the time that we hadn't really received a schedule for this week until late last week. Not enough time to make good plans. Of course, they all managed to scheduled time for a three day break for themselves either before or on the holiday. I guess that's why I make a substandard wage.

On the bright side the weather was quite nice. Temp in the lower 60's with some peaks of sunlight. I dozed in bed an extra hour and finally got licked awake by my impatient buddy. I managed to distract him by raising the window shade. The street traffic can keep him busy for over an hour.

Once I managed to down a cup of coffee we were ready to go for a walk in the park. Even with so many people traveling or visiting others, it's NYC and there were still people all around. Reading, snoozing on a bench. Having some lunch. Feeding the squirrels. Fall finally came to the city and the trees are giving up leaves by the thousands. There are multi-colored piles of nature's discard everywhere. Apparently, by the way Jet roots around in them they are loaded with quality smells as well. I expect with the weather calling for wind and cold tomorrow it will only be more dramatic. We accomplished our mission (pooped) and walked back home. I had already planned to take Jet for a longer outing later and with luck give his coat a good brushing.

I stopped at the grocery store the night before and while I had no intention of making a sad little Thanksgiving feast for one I did give a nod to the holiday and bought myself a big breakfast ham steak to go with some eggs and whole wheat toast for a delicious afternoon brunch. I also couldn't resist buying a pumpkin pie for dessert with dinner. I noodled around on line, deciding I was happy I hadn't posted the same pictures for the holiday that everyone else had by Googling Thanksgiving under image search. The cat and dog as pilgrim and indian isn't so cute the 10th time you see it.

Then it was time for a nice walk over to the dog run at Madison Park. We cut over by walking past the exclusive and key-locked Gramercy Park, which, for all it's landscaping and imposing sculpture, smells ... no, reeks of dog piss. The run wasn't too crowded but the dogs and people that were there were quite friendly. Jet got his good brushing too. By the time we meandered home and climbed up 5 flights of stairs, I wasn't too tired but Jet promptly sacked out and snoozed for hours.

After a quality Thanksgiving wank, which I totally thanked myself for, I started puttering around the apartment cleaning the floors and straightening up. I checked out all the Black Friday sale ads, making mental notes about camera prices and features. That will probably be my next big purchase, if and when I can ever get caught up on the bills. Then I decided to install the new towel bar in the bathroom that I purchased last week and unclog the shower drain for the umpteenth time. I'm surprised my roommate isn't totally bald. She looses hair by the handful every shower. That all took surprisingly long. By this point The Incredibles was airing on network TV so I took several breaks to enjoy that. Satisfied with my handiwork I ran down to the Million Dollar Deli and bought some salad fixin's and ice cream to go with my pie. Dinner consisted of leftover pasta with chicken, mushrooms and peas, fresh garlic bread and salad with lots of crunchy veggies. Hardly Thanksgiving fare but absolutely yummy nonetheless.

After cleaning up the dinner dishes I channel surfed a bunch. Everyone puts up marathons of this or that this time of year so I hopped around watching Project Runway and Iron Chef and Little People, Big World episodes. Oh, and as an aside, the whole time my day was unfolding, my former roommates, They Who Will Not Be Named, had obviously left town or at least left for the entire day. I know this because I recently noticed that they got a replacement for the late, beloved Colby. And the poor little pup spent all day and night barking and howling in whatever room he had been locked in and left. He was still at it at 1:30am when I took Jet for his last walk. I guess that's another innocent animal that can expect a shortened life span and a miserable life.

After Jet's walk I finally tucked into that pie and ice cream and then took some time to update my resume before bed. I was going to leave that little fact hanging for you, but lest you get the wrong idea, I am still gainfully employed. But I've decided to test the waters and see if I can get some better offers. Either as a back-up plan or a bargaining chip. We shall see. Won't we?

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