12:07am - I call my dad around midnite New York time since he's on business in Salt Lake City. My dad answers the phone asking me "what's wrong?'. I tell him "nothing" and ask why he askes. It turns out he's not in Salt Lake City, but rather back home, on my time and I just woke him up. I apologize and tell him I'll call him in the morning. I go back to sleep.
9:06am - I get off the #3 train at Wall St. looking for Blind and Visual Services at Exchange Place. I find it and meet with a man named Harvey, whom I had spoken to while preparing to leave Pittsburgh. We discuss my seeing a Low Vision Specialist to determine whether or not I'm legally blind and will therefore qualify for benefits from the state of New York. He gives me the number of a doctor, we tal a bit more and I head back up to Midtown.
10:03am - I call my dad and apologize for waking him up the nite before. I tell him abou the interview with Jet Blue before we both have to go, and I duck into ta subway station.
10:35am - As I get off the train at Penn Station, I decide it'd be a good idea for me to buy my first $76 MTA monthly pass. The Metrocard machine I try to use isn't accepting debit cards, though, so I hold off and decide to walk up to where my temp agency interview is, so as to make sure I know where I'm going. Along the way I stop at the 42 St. - Times Square subway to try to buy my Metrocard, and this time it works. I continue on my walk and find my way to the temp agency.
11:15am - A branch of the New York Public Library is right next door to the temp agnecy, so I stop in to see if I can get a library card. I talk to a woman at the information desk who tells me to hold off until I have a pay stub, so that I can prove residency.
11:45am - I get to my interview at Starbuck's a few minutes early. The manager is finishing up some things, and ends up running a few minutes late. The interview goes well, and at the end of it I'm told that the New York area has had a lot of store managers who have quit, which led to a lot of assistant managers getting promoted, so a lot of stores are in need of supervisors and assistant managers. I'm told that I have to meet with this store's assistant manager on Sunday, but that if all goes well, I'll be hired back as a supervisor - possibly at an increased rate - with a high probability of getting promoted to an assistant manager position sooner than later. I leave, with a follow up interview planned for Sunday at noon and with decision expected to be made by Monday.
2:15pm - I decide to celebrate with a lunch from White Castle =)
2:45pm - I decide to head up to the Border's book store at MSG to kill a few minutes before going to the temp agency. While sitting an isle, reading a Time magazine, a young-ish black woman comes into the isle talking to herself. I glance up, and she apologizes for talking to herself. I tell her that I talk to myself all the time, and from there she starts telling me about a term paper she has to due the following day. It's a four page paper on any human behavior and she's looking for an easy paper topic and reference materials.
Without trying to be crass, I tell her that if she wants an easy paper, she should consider human sexuality and getting her hands on the Kinsey Report. I'm not quite sure how, but somehow I end up walking around the isles with her, trying to help her find her book. After a while we can't find it, and she thanks me for my help and checks with the information desk.
3:30pm - I have my interview with the temp agency. Nothing special other than the fact that all the female staff members there are super cute.
5pm - I take the Q train to Union Square and meet up with my friend Joe in the Village. As we have'nt seen each other in months, we hang out for a long time - starting at a place in the VIllage where we have a coupel fo Guiness' and shoot some pool, after which we take the R train up to Bay Ridge where he shows me around his neck of the woods. We sotp at his place, play some guitar, watch some baseball and head to a place called Kitty Kiernan's on 3rd Ave. in Bay Ridge. It's a cool place that seems Irish but is actually Polish, with a cute bartender, good tunes ont eh jukebox and neighborhood types at the bar. Joe and I talk school, work and women over a few more pints of Guinness and at a few minutes after midnight, we put our glasses down and head out.
12:06am - Before Joe and I can step away from the table, two men shouting at each other in Polish come around from the bar area and into the seating area grasping at each other's shirts. One of my and Joe's chairs gets knocked over, and a few other patrons try to pull the men from each other. They fail, and the men end up back near us, and suddenly Joe and I are aiding in the break-up. The men get separated, and one goes outside. For the most part, the staff seems to have everything under control, and Joe and I leave.
12:20am - After stopping for a bag of chips and a drink, I get on the R train at 95th St. and ask the indie-rock girl sitting near the door if I'm on the right train. She takes a second to explain the late nite route to me and I thank her.
Some guys on the R start heckling the indie-rock girl, and she's obviously beginning to get frustrated. It's at this that I notice she's wearing an eye patch, which, while I don't generally see people walking around with them on, I remember a time when I had gone to an eye doctor and had to wear one for some reason, so while it's what the assholes on the R are bugging her about, it doesn't bother me any.
The important part is that this girl becomes my personal hero by giving shit back to these guys without losing her cool. An empty cup of coffee she has keeps falling over and I offer to take it and put it in my empty plastic bag, and she thanks me. The train comes to a stop, and the driver announces that the car is out of service a stop before it's supposed to, forcing us all to make a transfer.
Once on the platform, the guys approach her and half-heartedly apologize while continuing to harass her. Finally, they leave and after a minute or two I ask her if she's ok. She says, "Why? My eye patch?" I kind of chuckle and say, "No, because of those assholes over there. I don't give a fuck about your eye patch." We continue to talk, and hop the N train together while beginning to talk about Music.
I confirm my suspicions and discover that she is indeed into indie-rock, which prompts me to ask, "So, I hope you don't think this is creepy, but you were nice to me and you like good music - do you want to be friends?" She kind of laughs, tells me her name is Zoe, and we exchange phone numbers.
I ask Zoe what she does, and what she goes to school for, and it's then that she says, "I'm actually only graduating high school."
Now, honestly, I was only talking to this girl because she was nice to me and liked the same music as I did. I wasn't out searching the subways late at nite for potential girlfriends or sexual partners, or anyone really. I made friends with a stranger through a mutual love of the same music.
That being said, Zoe is only 17, and I kind of feel weird about the whole thing. As we parted at her final stop, we shook hands and I still told her I'd call her, though. So I'll have to think about it some more, I suppose.
1:25am - I get home, eat a sandwich and fall asleep.
