KRISTA OVERBY BEST FRIEND

Ooh, yeah! All right!
We’re tempin’:
I wanna temp it wid you.
We’re tempin’, tempin’,
And I hope you like tempin’, too.

I have yet another temp job this week.  This one might last a few weeks though, which is nice.  It might actually be my LAST TEMP JOB IN NYC.  I would say ever, but I’m pretty sure I’ll have to temp again in Denver…at least for a bit.

Anyway, because I know you all love it…here is my temp rating for this job…I’ll call it - Bonds R Us.  And a little side note - I think someone from the company found this here blog the other day (thank you site meter)….so hi friendly Bonds R Us employee, I heart you and your company.
As always here is the rating grade system:

1 = Hellish
3 = Are they serious with this shit?
5 = Fine, if you have no expectations
7 = Niiiice
10 = Are there any job openings?

I grade the following perks: snacks and drinks, chair, other admins, boss man, location, and extras.

• First and foremost Snacks and Drinks: 8 -  Hello free breakfast!  Whohoo…or should I say, hello continental breakfast…isn’t that what hotels and conferences call coffee, bagels, and danii (plural of danish)?  It be cool if for once free breakfast meant man in big white hat cookin me up an omelet, but a temp needs to take what she can get.  The coffee is good and the food is plentiful.  Although, some orange juice would be appreciated.
• Chair: 4 - It’s too low (damn mini people again) and I can’t figure out how to raise it.  I should switch it out with another one, but I can’t be bothered…although if I will be here a few weeks, perhaps I should look into it.
• Other Admins: 9 - Really cool, nice people here.  Seriously, I’m not just saying this.  Nice atmosphere.  People say hello in the halls and make small talk.  You would be surprised how often this doesn’t happen in other companies.  Especially financial firms.  Somehow they have fostered a nice company culture here.
• Boss Man:10 - This rating doesn’t come along that often, but this guy is pretty cool.  Anyone who will make small talk with me for 15 minutes about weird things is golden in my book.  It makes me miss my days with Mr. R..my old boss man who would chat about his childhood and the latest book he was reading about Mormons or torture or salt..or whatever it happened to be that day.
• Location: 10 - Another 10 - whoohoo, I know you must be thinking…either this place rocks or Krista is back on the pipe…well it’s not the pipe people…this place is only 20 minutes from my house, door-to-door.  It’s located down on the river, overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge and South Street Seaport.  I’ve never had such a short commute in all my years in NYC. It’s so nice.  I don’t even bring anything to read, I just pop my iPod in and before I know it I’m here.
• Extras:6 - Not much extra.  In fact, there is one main detractor from my happiness.  My cube is located right in front of the men’s bathroom…so this being a trading company there are a lot of men here…and the bathroom is constantly in use.  Which really isn’t the worst of it.  The worst of it is the noises these men make while in there.  I never realized how much men like to make noises while voiding.  Is it that much of a release?  Jeez.  It’s actually kind of funny and I’m sure I’ll start tuning it out eventually.  Note to the future floor planners…don’t put a cube/office in front of a restroom…it is just wrong.  Side note - Yesterday was Secretary’s Day and the company bought flowers for all the admins…and they included me.  Isn’t that nuts.  It was only my second day of temping…haha.  Nice move Bonds R Us.

Overall Score: I’m too lazy to calculate these anymore..so let’s just say it’s adequate and I feel lucky I scored this place for my last few weeks in the city…gosh, I still can’t believe I’m leaving.

I’m moving out of my apartment on Sunday morning…anyone who wants to help me move I’m buying coffee and breakfast sandwiches….I’ll even get you extra bacon if you want it….

Phil, originally uploaded by Erin Lady Byrne.

To anyone who hasn’t seen this set on Flickr yet, you really must drop everything you are doing right now and take a look. Seriously…drop everything.

Now.

I am temping all this week and maybe the following few weeks at a company that does not allow access to internet based emial accounts.  Sure, it serves free breakfast and has great coffee, but no personal email access?  That just seems un-American.  If you want to get in contact with me, please leave a comment below with your email address (as I don’t know anyone’s email address from memory) and I will email you from my work address - at least they set me up with one of those.  Commies.  BTW - remember Yeltsin? 

Sign, originally uploaded by kriscuz.

I took a picture of this sign in Maryland. Um…seriously…CANNOT BE DESTROYED!

raccoon, originally uploaded by kriscuz.

As promised, here is my breakdown of visiting the camp I’ll be working at this summer. The picture is of Rocky, the guitar pickin mascot of the camp. I didn’t see any raccoons, but I DID see a woodpecker, osprey, eagles, and a white tailed deer that ran right in front of me while I was walking up a path…right in front of me!

Basically, it rocked and I’m so excited to start in June. It’s such a change from Brooklyn and city life, but I think it can only be good for me. Wearing hiking boots, no make-up, being in the sun, working hard, swimming, being around really silly people, singing a lot of songs that have repeating verses….what more can you ask for.

Something struck me as odd though and I haven’t mentioned this to anyone. I met a lot of camper parents this past weekend and you know what was weird….they were mostly around my age. And I realized that if I would have married at the same age my parents did and had a kid, I would have an 8 year old right now….and 8 year old! Who would be going to camp! Holy crazy pants! One of the moms was talking about when she went to camp…in 95…Um, I was graduating college in 95. Nuts. But I don’t care…they were all jealous that I could just drop everything and move into a cabin for the entire summer. So the jokes on them…procreating suckers!

Ok, major change in topic now…I’m writing this as I watch American Idol and they just credited Tim McGraw with writing When the Stars Go Blue…dudes..it was Ryan Adams…get it right. Man that’s a good song, I’ve never heard Tim McGraw’s version, but I guarantee it wasn’t half as good as Adams’.

Yo, it’s your friendly neighborhood temp back with a new rating for this week’s temp locale.

1 = Hellish
3 = Are they serious with this shit?
5 = Fine, if you have no expectations
7 = Niiiice
10 = Are there any job openings?

And I grade the following perks: snacks and drinks, chair, other admins, boss man, location, and extras.

This week I am temping for a place I’ll call - Law Town 2 - Electric Bugaloo

• Snacks and Drinks :8 - You all know how important this section is to me. I didn’t know what to expect as the last law firm I worked at didn’t even offer water. So I was pleasantly surprised when I was directed to a fully stocked kitchen! Whooo. They offer water, juice, sodas, and even though they only provide shitty pod coffee and no snacks, they get an 8 rating because they stock Yoohoo. Now, I don’t drink Yoohoo, but I think it takes someone with a unique sense of humor to keep a stock of cold Yoohoos in a corporate kitchen. Awesome. They are also located directly above a nice cafe where I bought my lunch without having to get drenched in the rain. Nor’easter anyone?
• Chair: 10 - Hello Ergonomic Task Chair! Whoooooooo.
• Other Admins: 6 - What other admins? This place is like a ghost town today. Maybe there will be more people in tomorrow when New Jersey isn’t under water. It’s uber quiet here, which is a little disconcerting, but people seem friendly enough. No complaints.
• Boss Man: 7 - Everyone seems really pleasant…almost too pleasant…it’s almost like a stepford office. Maybe tomorrow I should bring some protection.
• Location: 7 - Oddly enough this is in the same building as the place I temped two weeks ago, the place with the waiters and glass elevators. However, remember last time how I was telling you about the offices with the beanbag chairs…um, no more bean bag chairs anymore. Where could they have gone? My goal is to temp in that office before I leave NYC…I just want to get a picture of myself sitting on a bean bag chair at work…haha, this reminds me of a funny story about me and a bean bag chair, which I can’t tell here because my mother reads this blog…
• Extras: 6 - I can’t think of any extras. They don’t seem to block any internet sites, but their nets do seem to be slow. It’s really quiet, which would be great if I were planning to meditate later, but since I’m not…it’s a tad boring.

Just a side note - I went down to Maryland to check out the camp I’ll be working at this summer (awesome). I stupidly didn’t get any pictures of the camp, but I did get a picture of a road sign that nearly made me fall over. Expect an update about that later tonight.

Hips Don’t Lie

Rehab

Just died in yours arms tonight - this one gets good around 40 seconds.

Say it isn’t so

In Da Club -this one has some inspired moments - minute 2.47 is awesome - I think the only black people this guy knows are at the mall

Hola, back by popular demand (Twinkie) it’s time for…Temp Rating System ™!
And because I have the time I am going to rate the place I temped at last week, as well as the place I am temping for this week.

Again - here is the rating scale:

1 = Hellish
3 = Are they serious with this shit?
5 = Fine, if you have no expectations
7 = Niiiice
10 = Are there any job openings?

And I grade the following perks:  snacks and drinks, chair, other admins, boss man, air tempertature, location, and extras.

This week I am temping for a place I’ll call - Law Town

• Snacks and Drinks: 2 - Um, what snacks and drinks…oh wait, you mean those in the vending machine.  Vending machine people!  Not since before the dot.com era have companies in NYC had vending machines.  They don’t even have water…like, not even a water fountain. 
• Chair: 5 - it is fine.  Nothing special.  It have a place to put my butt…and that is about it.  I’m filling in for a short person again and my back already hurts…damn short people and their little short chairs and low everything.
• Other Admins: 5 - There are two types of admins here.  Those who are super friendly and nice and those who are naaasty.  I have never temped at a Law Office before.  It’s nuts…everything is monitored so they can bill the clients.  Every copy you make is billed back, so you have to log in before you make copies, or fax anything, or scan.  It’s not hard, but the first time I did it I needed some assistance and this one admin was so mad I bothered her.  Another was printing off a bunch of stuff in front of me…so I patiently waited behind her, because I wasn’t shown where there was other copiers in the building…and she let me wait behind her for about 10 minutes before telling me it was going to be awhile and telling me where there was another copier. 
• Boss Man: 8 - He’s pretty cool.  He’s old as hell and doesn’t use a computer…yes that’s right, no computer.  So I have to print out emails and then print out the responses he has me make, but he’s cool.  He is doing pretty interesting work.  Basically, he’s assisting Jews get art that was stolen from the Nazis.  Yes, Nazis!  It makes me want to dress up in a dress I made from my curtains and sing songs in Austrian.
• Air Temperature: 7 - I might delete this topic from further ratings..it’s boring me. 
• Location: 6 - It’s close to the subway, I have to take 3 trains to get here, but it’s not that bad. It’s not close to anything…but that’s good cause I don’t have any money for anything anyway.
• Extras: 8 -Did I mention we are fighting Nazis!
• Temp Friendly Average: 5.1 - I’ll be glad when I have another temp assignment.  Fighting the good fight is cool and writing emails about Klimt paintings is awesome, but my back hurts and I miss places with free water. 

Last week I am temped for a place I’ll call - War&Peacemoney

• Snacks and Drinks: 9 - This place offered free water and had a soda fountain..and brought in Starbucks coffee!  Whooo.  They didn’t offer any snacks and that’s what made the rating go down to 9, BUT they did…I’m not making this up…have waiters and waitresses walking around all day delivering food!  Seriously…waiters!  In little vests!  The company had a website where you could order food all day..for free..and they would deilver it to your desk.  Sure, they only do this so their employees work longer…but as a temp, with nothing to do…I say, bring it on.
• Chair: 7 - It was a nice ergonomic chair. 
• Other Admins: 8 - Cool kids.  All seemed nice and helpful.  It seemed like most were actors and actresses waiting for their big break.  I kept getting NYC audition emails and emails from other admins telling me about plays they are in. 
• Boss Man: 7 - He said maybe 10 words to me.  He didn’t have any work for me..the phone rang twice and it was his wife looking for him.  She seemed needy…I’m thinking she might have been 2 steps away from in-house treatment. 
• Location: 7 - Good location, the building was interesting.  It was built, atrium-style) so you could see all the way up to the top floors when you were in the lobby and they had glass elevators so you could see the other offices…which was cool because there was one office that looked hella cool.  Everyone had beanbags!  Beanbags!  I think it was some dot.com or advertising agency.
• Extras: 7 -Did I mention the waiters!  haha
• Temp Friendly Average: 7.5 - Even though it got a high rating, I wouldn’t want to work there full time.  I would temp any time, but to work full time, blah…it’s still a financial company…and they all still suck.

This almost makes up for the whole irony incident.

Or maybe this is more your cup o’tea.

colorado, originally uploaded by kriscuz.

I wanted to formally tell everyone who reads this blog some exciting news. I’ve decided my time in NYC has come to an end and I am moving on. Moving on to bigger skies and cleaner air. Have you guessed yet? Here are some more clues…I’m moving to where the buffalo roam, the deer and the antelope play…actually I’m not so sure about that clue. While I was visiting there were some buffalo, but I’m not so sure how far they can roam and I must admit I didn’t see any deer or antelope.

Um, what else can I say…oh hell, I’ll just come right out and tell you…this city girl is moving to Colorado. Whooo! It’s the farthest west I’ll ever have lived.

I’ll be out of Brooklyn in May and then I’m spending the summer in Maryland, living in a cabin along the Chesapeake Bay and working at a camp. A sort of city detox before moving, if you will. haha. Then at the end of August I’ll make the big move to Colorado.

My lovely friends the J and Liz are out there already and have graciously offered to take me in until I get settled. Which hopefully won’t take too long. I am feeling positive about it all.

Yours,

Best Friend