Welcome to the Parking Wars

I Guess I'm S. O. L.

Ridgewood is a really cool town. There is no denying that. I love the fact that I can walk to a coffee shop at 9pm, take a train to New York or the airport without paying huge fees, and seeing all the cool events that happen in the park (Halloween celebrations are starting up).

If there was one major draw back about this town, it's parking. Not only are there limited spaces, they also have limited times or (even worse) meters. For the most part, I don't have to worry about parking. I only really think about it when people are coming to visit. My current solution is to have people who visit me park at my office since there isn't any guest parking at my apartment.

Growing up in the DC suburbs and then living outside of Baltimore, I was spoiled by the amount of easy parking. It was only if I went within 5 or so miles of th city that it became a problem and even then I could get creative in getting around those restrictions. Not so in Ridgewood.

Parking has become a huge issue in the village. So much so, that a few months ago I started noticing a flyers going up around town. It called the "Vote Yes on Parking" campaign. There was no other information available. So I decided to do a little digging.

Apparently someone who owns one of the parking lots in town wants to turn it into a garage. This would be helpful if it increased the number of parking spaces available. It doesn't seem to for those of us who live in town. The town government also wants to increase the meter times from 6pm to 9pm and there is still no free overnight street parking. At least this is the information I've been able to track down.

I continue to pray to the parking gods that there will be a favorable solution. As of right now, I'm glad I usually have a place to park. It is just another thing to stress me out on my long list of things that stress me out.

Until...wait next weekend is Halloween! Oh boy! It's the best day of the year. Maybe I'll finally see a ghost or a vampire (not one that is sparkly). I'm gonna get ready by reading Uzumaki. It's about a town infected by spirals. I know what you guys are thinking, spirals aren't scary. You guys would be wrong, very very wrong.

If you enjoyed this post or it really pissed you off, please like, share or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Welcome To New York City

They Tell Me It's The City That Never Sleeps

There is a small stretch of highway that goes up a hill that I take on my way home from work. On clear days I can see the closest major city (and most likely one of the top ten five powerful cities in the world) New York City. It's not like Washington DC or Baltimore. For one thing it's much bigger than either of the cities I grew up around. For another, it's a very different culture from what I'm used to.

Honestly I sometimes can't explain what makes these cities feel so different. Maybe it's that the two are a lot smaller or that one of them is the seat of the national government. Even the people are different.

If I were to describe Washington DC (DC for people who live there), it would be professional. I feel it's the heaven for a lot of Millennials hoping to make an impact while maintaining their nerdy hobbies.

If I were to describe Baltimore (from what little I was able to explore), it was DC's quirky cousin. There was still some government presence, but it allowed for a lot more personality. Heck, we used to have a Batman cosplayer (may he rest in peace) who would visit children in the hospital as well as drive his batmobile in the Inner Harbor.

Two weekends past (yeah, I know I skipped one), I was in New York City with my family. We stayed on Broadway somewhere in Midtown (or what I assume was Midtown, it might have been part of Chelsae). It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed my time in the city. I'm still not sure what to make of the city.

The hotel I was at had a few unusually large rooms, for the city that is. Hotel rooms are typically the size of a closet. One room I was in was only able to fit a full size bed and the bathroom door would only open part way.

The city is beautiful. We were able to walk along a path that had once been part of the subway (Google isn't supplying me with the actual name). Though it was crowded, the view was great. It was a great way to see the city without feeling like an ant.

We then headed to Chelsea Market which was all decorated in Halloween stuff. Seeing all of the shops was cool, but the displays were so much fun. They were advertising an event in the 30th for the holiday. If it wasn't while I was working I would totally go.

My favorite thing we did was go to a theater and see a radio type show featuring Lovecraft readings. It was so creepy and awesome. The theater was in the East Village (or at least I think that was the area). It was very different from Chelsea and Midtown. The theater was small, maybe 100 seats. It was very different from anything I'd seen in DC.

New York City is huge and each neighborhood has its own personality. I'm having fun exploring and hope to do more. Now I just need volunteers to come with me.

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Welcome to Frustration

When nothing goes your way.

I will be the first to admit, that I tend to learn things the hard way. This can be very frustrating. I want things to go smoothly, but it's not always that easy.

In math, learning things the hard way is actually quite practice. It makes it easier to identify short cuts in equations and solve problems a lot faster over time. The way people  work is not the same way as equations. I have to constantly adapt to different people's styles and personalities to get similar results.while one person might get back to me right away, another might take a whole week to respond.

Personally, I don't like this kind of inconsistency. I live for stability and patterns. Humans aren't that great at either of those two things. Just because change is a constant, doesn't mean I have to like it, only accept it.

When my stress levels are through the roof, my frustration levels go off th charts. Yes, these are too different things. I can be frustrated about the fact that I am suffering from writers block, but not stressed out about it. On the flip side, I can be stressed about getting to a place on time, but not frustrated since nothing is preventing me from being on time.

Does that make sense?

The way I combat frustration is similar to how I deal with stress:

1) Knitting - it soothes the soul and helps me calm down. The repetitive nature of knitting is soothing and I feel like I'm being productive.

2) Medetation - It helps me focus on what I can control vs. what I can't change. Since I'm not able to make other people do what I need to, I have to learn to accept that fact. Meditation helps with understanding my feelings and accepting them.

3) Writing - if I can't control my world, I might as well control someone else's (even if the characters aren't real). I am able to put myself in a different pair of shoes to see a different perspective.

These things work for me, but there are other ways people can cope with being frustrated. I recommend sharing them on social media. Shout it out with a hash tag. Sometimes it is good to take th see things out.

If you enjoyed this post, or it really pissed you off, please like, share or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me. Until next week.