Cute Cats and Gray Hair! These are the words I keep using to summarize the last 7 years of my life without any emotions. The fact of the matter is there is a lot of emotions and a lot of baggage (literally and figuratively) that accompany the experience of your first apartment. I've been told that 7 years is fairly long to stay in your first apartment. I agree as my place was over the LIRR I lived on the top floor, apartment 7C and every time the train went by my toaster tray would rattle. I kid you not! :/ I hated that and now it will be one of the things I'll cherish from there.
The truth is I found a lot about myself in those walls. I found that I have the balls for what it takes to get up on stage and sing for a room full of people I don't know. It all started with CPW = Cabaret Performance Workshop, with the brilliant Helen Baldassarie. I gained the strenght and a friend to let me get up on stage and sing in a cabaret club. Kristen then lived with me for a while and I was able to do what I Love most, help a friend. I held my first job for 6 years until I choose to leave. I choose to leave after I had put in two years at Fordham on a Master's degree in Social Work. I have not completed this yet, but I would love the chance to. This came to a hault when I had my fifth open heart surgery, which as those of you know changed my entire plumbing, and my life. I went on to bigger and better cabaret shows. One at Dillons where I sang 6 songs and one this past December at The Duplex, where I had my first full show. I loved it so much that I joined that Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs a.k.a MAC. My surgery has also led to me doing volunteering and throwing a benefit to raise money. I have become an advocate for the Adult Congenital Heart Defect Association, (ACHA). I've made quite a few friends through this work, so much that it's a pleasure. My volunteer work and singing have become my true loves of my life. I have always loved helping people.
This led me on my next adventure the NYCTF, The NYC Teaching Fellows. I was working in the South Bronx as a Special Ed teacher, helping student's learn and created the role of a Self-Contained Teacher, while actively persuing my SpEd degree at Hunter.
I am now sitting here recounting all that I do and all that I've done and it's overwhelming to think of how much and how hard I have worked in just 7 years. I didn't even mention my cats. There's Rocket who I saved from an LIJ co-worker who wanted to put him and his litter mate down when they were only 5 years old, give or take. In less than a week I had Rocket and found a home for his litter mate. Then I went to the North Shore Animal League to get Rocket a buddy since I was hardly home and when I was all I did was homework for grad school. Grizabella fell asleep in my arm in the shelter. A worker asked, "Are you taking her home?" I looked down saw this kitten sleeping in my arms and replied, "I guess so!". I was not even prepared to take any kitty home that day, but there was Griza. Returning her two years later because of the incessant out of the box, on my couch urination, was by far the hardest thing I ever had to do!! I'm so glad she was re-adoped. It's funny how singing brought me to my latest kitten, Rescue. He was living on the street and eating out of a can in a parking garage across the street from my wonderful friend and accompanist Haim. The parking attendants told me, "To run the cat over", as if any 'normal' person would do that?! I went over asked who took care of him? He rubbed right up against me and started to follow me out of the garage. I saved him and hour later, and brought him home that night! I must mention that after my lesson and a quick bite the roof of Haim's building was on fire, and there were fire turcks from end to end on between Broadway and Columbus. I therefore could not get my car out of the garage and had more time to 'rescue' this kitty from the street life and the fire. Hence the name Rescue. At this point in my life as I return to the home I first started out in, I'm not exactly sure who rescued who? All I know is in 7 years I lived, and worked and dated a lot and I have started to go gray, probably from the surgery;) and I have two cute cats who are thick as thieves!!
The truth is I found a lot about myself in those walls. I found that I have the balls for what it takes to get up on stage and sing for a room full of people I don't know. It all started with CPW = Cabaret Performance Workshop, with the brilliant Helen Baldassarie. I gained the strenght and a friend to let me get up on stage and sing in a cabaret club. Kristen then lived with me for a while and I was able to do what I Love most, help a friend. I held my first job for 6 years until I choose to leave. I choose to leave after I had put in two years at Fordham on a Master's degree in Social Work. I have not completed this yet, but I would love the chance to. This came to a hault when I had my fifth open heart surgery, which as those of you know changed my entire plumbing, and my life. I went on to bigger and better cabaret shows. One at Dillons where I sang 6 songs and one this past December at The Duplex, where I had my first full show. I loved it so much that I joined that Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs a.k.a MAC. My surgery has also led to me doing volunteering and throwing a benefit to raise money. I have become an advocate for the Adult Congenital Heart Defect Association, (ACHA). I've made quite a few friends through this work, so much that it's a pleasure. My volunteer work and singing have become my true loves of my life. I have always loved helping people.
This led me on my next adventure the NYCTF, The NYC Teaching Fellows. I was working in the South Bronx as a Special Ed teacher, helping student's learn and created the role of a Self-Contained Teacher, while actively persuing my SpEd degree at Hunter.
I am now sitting here recounting all that I do and all that I've done and it's overwhelming to think of how much and how hard I have worked in just 7 years. I didn't even mention my cats. There's Rocket who I saved from an LIJ co-worker who wanted to put him and his litter mate down when they were only 5 years old, give or take. In less than a week I had Rocket and found a home for his litter mate. Then I went to the North Shore Animal League to get Rocket a buddy since I was hardly home and when I was all I did was homework for grad school. Grizabella fell asleep in my arm in the shelter. A worker asked, "Are you taking her home?" I looked down saw this kitten sleeping in my arms and replied, "I guess so!". I was not even prepared to take any kitty home that day, but there was Griza. Returning her two years later because of the incessant out of the box, on my couch urination, was by far the hardest thing I ever had to do!! I'm so glad she was re-adoped. It's funny how singing brought me to my latest kitten, Rescue. He was living on the street and eating out of a can in a parking garage across the street from my wonderful friend and accompanist Haim. The parking attendants told me, "To run the cat over", as if any 'normal' person would do that?! I went over asked who took care of him? He rubbed right up against me and started to follow me out of the garage. I saved him and hour later, and brought him home that night! I must mention that after my lesson and a quick bite the roof of Haim's building was on fire, and there were fire turcks from end to end on between Broadway and Columbus. I therefore could not get my car out of the garage and had more time to 'rescue' this kitty from the street life and the fire. Hence the name Rescue. At this point in my life as I return to the home I first started out in, I'm not exactly sure who rescued who? All I know is in 7 years I lived, and worked and dated a lot and I have started to go gray, probably from the surgery;) and I have two cute cats who are thick as thieves!!
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