The (un)real estate situation

Maplewood and South Orange, in Essex County are highly desirable communities for people moving from New York City. I’ve been showing homes in Maplewood and South Orange…every single one of them is involved in a tax appeal. It is impossible to counsel my buyers regarding price. And all but a very few are either short sales or bank owned or impossible to show. It’s just completely crazy now. I have never seen anything like this.

Can’t give it away

I am a professional photographer. I regularly photograph a trade show over five days for a major trade magazine. The editors decided to forgo the coverage last year because they did not have the budget. I usually enjoy this work and I have shot this show with them for years. I decided to volunteer to shoot it for free one day to help out during hard times. However, the editor said they could not use my free pictures — there were not enough pages in the magazine to run the photos. There is not enough advertising to support it. I can’t give my services away in this economy!

Pass it on

Lately, (my grandmother’s') taken to picking up the newspaper after her sister-in-law down the street is done with it. My grandmother will read it, and then she’ll pass it along to a friend of hers.

Getting domestic

As a longtime resident of Redding, CT, I have been working out at the Wilton Family Y for well over 15 years. Wilton is a tony town with most houses in the seven-figure range and many earning their living on Wall Street or at the brokerage houses/hedge funds in Lower Fairfield County.

The Y parking lot had always been filled with late model high-end vehicles with a smattering of more pedestrian Toyotas, Fords, and Hondas. Lately I’ve noticed the reverse – there are only about 10-15% late model expensive vehicles and the rest are average cars during the weekdays. However, on the weekends, the BMWs, Audis and Lexuses still occupy half of the parking spots. Weekends are the days when the men work out.

The conclusion I draw is that the women are doing the economizing and the men are holding onto their images.

A literary recession

With nothing at all but time on my hands, job searching for over a year, I’ve been able to read/re-read/finish abandoned books. So far in 2009, this includes: War and Peace, Anna Karenina, The Magic Mountain and just this past week, La Recherche du Temps Perdu (complete). A rare opportunity!

The bus to the plane

I always took either a taxi or private bus to or from LaGuardia Airport. This weekend I took an MTA city bus from LaGuardia to the city and it cost $2.50 and was an easy ride.

Employment on ice

A quantum jump in the number of participants at the Wednesday morning adult recreational ice hockey session at Riverbank State Park. More people are working part time or are currently unemployed. Also, at the evening sessions, most of the conversation in the locker room is about trying to find employment.

Coupon competition

It’s become very hard for the workers at a local ShopRite to keep its displays of free newspapers tidy. As soon as the bins are refilled, it seems, shoppers rush to rummage through the papers for their coupon inserts.

The art of employment for employment in arts

I have had one interview since beginning my job search in August. The position was at a non-profit arts organization, and the interviewer told me she had received over 200 résumés. She was only able to look at the first 100, and about 10 people were interviewed (I did not get the job). I am looking forward to another interview next week.

In some ways, I feel I am back to square one after getting my Master’s. I had much less trouble finding a job when I originally moved to the city with virtually no experience in 2004, and the jobs for which I am interviewing are essentially the same low-paying, administrative jobs I have always held. HOWEVER, I have been able to spend two exciting years on my art full time, I have received helpful feedback and encouragement from respected artists and critics and met many exceptional artists whom I now count as friends. Overall I am hopeful and looking forward to future projects.

Expensive fleas

My husband and I visit the local flea market almost every weekend. Lately we noticed that the amount of available parking spaces has dwindled, and the vendors are starting to sell high quality goods for bargain prices. There was a vendor there a few weekends ago that was selling his collection of Omega watches because his wife lost her job and they needed the money.

Cash only

I was shopping at Century 21 in Westbury and waiting in a longish line when one of the cashiers said, “Anyone paying with a credit or debit card?” No one budged except me.

Homemade music

I host a childrens music website and I’ve noticed that more parents who attend my shows and visit my site are using my “make your own instrument” directions. Instead of buying a first guitar or drum kit for a young child they are doing homemade music jams building their own didgeridoos, box drums, shekeres, etc.

Insurance ensurance

I have found that insurance companies are trying to raise rates or cut benefits any way they can. My homeowners insurance is making me verify that I have a current subscription for my alarm system. If I can’t prove it, they will raise my rates. My health insurance wants a copy of my marriage certificate and first page of my latest income tax return (with financial information blacked out) or they will drop my wife’s coverage.

Baby bust?

Yesterday, I was the anesthesiologist assigned to labor and delivery at my hospital. Whereas a typical Monday would normally be composed of 2-3 C/Sections and several vaginal deliveries, yesterday was quiet, with only 1 delivery during the 5 hours I was there. The nurses told me it has been very quiet the past several weeks, and suspects that fewer babies were conceived after November, 2008. We’ll see how long it lasts.

We all (don’t) scream

Last winter the Cold Stone Creamery closed for a “winter break” with a sign on the window that they would reopen in March. They didn’t reopen in the spring, and soon an eviction notice appeared on the door. I figured if Americans can’t keep an ice cream shop open, we’re doomed.

Nanny surplus

I am a member of a Yahoo club for Russian-speaking parents. I am seeing more and more ads on our forum whose gist is “Good Babysitter available ASAP: Due to our family situation, I had to let go of a good babysitter…etc.” Before Spring-Summer 2008 we had virtually no such posts. Most of the babysitter-related posts back then discussed “arrogant babysitters who are requesting too much in pay/vacation/perks.” Situation clearly changed since then.

Plain pens

My bank changed its free pens from its groovy turquoise and white “click” roller ball-type imprinted with its logo and website to a garden variety basic pen (no imprinting) with a cap.

For the first time since we moved into our home in northern Westchester county 14 years ago, we will not be giving out full-size Hershey bars this Halloween.

Less candy

Our little ‘hood is an increasingly popular trick-or-treating destination for our and neighboring towns, and we will easily get 600 visitors on our porch Saturday night. With me laid off from my publishing job several months ago, and my husband’s design firm experiencing the expected revenue falloff, we could no longer justify our confectionary largesse. We’ll be handing out puny little candy pieces just like everyone else.

We’ll miss the large-eyed astonishment of the little kids who’ve seemingly never laid eyes on an actual, honest-to-goodness candy bar. And the whoops and calls and thank-you-thank-you-thanks-you’s of the early teens who are jarred from their feigned worldliness when they see that big honkin’ brown wrapper.
But we’re sure that our Halloweeners will understand our cutback, and remember that the real point of Halloween is to venture out into the crisp fall night, see one’s friends and neighbors, and have some good, clean, fun. Oh, jeez; I hope we don’t get egged.

‘Boarded up

The local skateboard mafia–twenty or so boys ranging in age from eight to fifteen–has taken over the empty planters outside the glossy new Richard Meier building on Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn. No one from the building chases them away, or appears to pay the slightest attention to them. The boys are very polite and make every effort to accommodate passersby, but what a comedown for this much- ballyhooed luxury building!

Door-to-door banker

I’m starting a new business and recently registered for a corporate license. A week later a business banker showed up at my current place of business to introduce himself and to see if I would consider opening my new business account with his bank (Chase Bank). He went on to say that his bank is not the big, impersonal bank I may think that it is (really now). Not to mention his bank is right across the way from my business.

Well this is a first for me. In the 19 years I’ve been in business, I’ve never had a banker show up and ask me to open an account with his bank.

Pro bono multum

Did you know that the city and state are recruiting attorneys to work on a volunteer basis? Overwhelmed by the needs of unrepresented litigants in the recession, the state courts are looking for volunteer attorneys to provide free legal advice in proceedings involving foreclosure, consumer debt, landlord/tenant, and other areas.

But the city and state are also recruiting volunteer attorneys to actually do the everyday legal work of their regular lawyers. The website of the city’s law department advertises that volunteer attorneys who have recently been laid off are needed to conduct depositions. The state is recruiting volunteer attorneys to serve as law clerks for state judges. Volunteer attorneys are also working in various state and city agencies.

I don’t have anything against these programs. I have already participated in four of them since being laid off in January, 2009. I am, however, wondering what people would say if the city and state were to begin recruiting people to work as volunteer teachers, firefighters, and police officers.

In the meantime, the volunteer work I have been doing has provided me the opportunity to help other New Yorkers who have been hit by the recession. I have gained experience in landlord/tenant law and employment law to add to my background in real estate, collections, and commercial litigation. Would anyone like to offer me a paying job?

Oh, now you want to help

I went into an expensive store where the staff has always been very snotty to me. I have a 2 month old baby, and haven’t been paying much attention to my clothes. I was wearing old chord pants and a baggy sweatshirt left over from college and did not look hip or fashionable in any capacity. I was looking around, and noticed that this time the staff were falling all over themselves to try to sell me clothes. They were bringing me different outfits they thought I might like, complimenting me, and making small talk. I felt like a celebrity, even though I looked like a ragamuffin. I did buy something small, my first purchase at this overpriced venue.

Piggy bank raiders

My husband is a coin collector, so my sons and I are very good about always checking our change to pick out anything old or rare before spending it. Since the recession began we have noticed a major upsurge in the number of Buffalo Nickels and Wheat Pennies in circulation. We’ve guess that hard times have caused people to raid their piggy banks.

I’ll think about it

Each year for 38 years, I have received a nasty letter from my apt. rental office notifying me that I must vacate my apt. by a certain date, unless I sign a new lease. This year, they told me how much they value my tenancy and refunded half my security deposit!

Face to face bonding

A financial advisor from a well-known investment company rang my bell early this morning and gave me a flier about a municipal bond with a yield of 5%. I’m 30 years old. The catch is that I’d need to invest $100K and that it wouldn’t mature until years after I myself start receiving Modern Maturity! Since when did they start selling bonds door to door like girl scout cookies?

Free only, please

I couldn’t sell a $400 tv stand for $5, listed for almost a month. Put on the free stuff list I got 20 emails in 24 hours!

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