my day off, by gina

One of my absolute favorite New York activities is to wander around downtown on a weekday afternoon. Not only does this mean I am not at work, but there are less slow-moving tourists and I can pretend I'm one of the enviable many who are not 9-5 drones. So when I got canned on Friday I was not at all dismayed at the prospect of a day or two off. Unfortunately, my temp agency is a little too on top of things and found me a gig starting on Monday. At a hedge fund. With a "very conservative" image. Joy. On second thought, maybe they're not that on top of things, because I got an "Oops! You start Tuesday" email right before I said goodbye to my free gym access. Hells yes. So how did I spend my day? Let me count the ways.

*After an alarm-free wakeup and leisurely breakfast, I decided to do some cleaning. I almost always "clean" on the weekends, but it is limited to putting away my abused clothing and stacking my eighty bazillion magazines. But on Monday, I scrubbed the thick layer of dust off the top of my ceiling fan that had long ago become legitimately disgusting, even by my standards.

*Cleansed, I left the house to get my culture on and met up with friend E for lunch at the museum that provides her income. We strolled through a couple exhibits, one of which featured a work by a woman I'd just read about in the Times, whose upcoming exhibit features a replication of a work I saw at Mass MoCA this summer. Given that this was such a revelation, I think it's safe to say I will never make a good art snob.

*Then it was down to Union Square to drop off some borrowed clothes at Drone's friend Cool Brit's cool place of employment and to get some test results from my lady doctor. In case you were wondering, I do not have AIDS.

*On a tip from E, I then paid a visit to Ramon, the tailor. Ramon had done a beautiful job lengthening the sleeves on her winter coat, and my beloved Marc by Marc winter coat had inexplicably acquired a baseball-sized hole in the back. Ramon's services do not come cheap, but he is sweet and fast and seems to know what the hell he's doing, given that he's been doing it for like 40 years. Not even my carelessness is too much for Ramon.

*Shopping time! I've been much better about curbing my clothes buying extravagance, but I've got the bug bad and just wanted SOMEthing. Perplexa got a cute blazer from the Vice store once and they had sale signs on the window, so I stopped in. The most exciting thing I found was a thong with the words "Doesn't Have AIDS Yet" on the front. As a propos as this find was, I had to pass. I gave up on clothes and settled for my favorite-smelling candle from the Fresh store, where Angelina Jolie also shops, as I learned when the sales boy gave me the end part of a receipt from her delivery order.

I took the scenic, subway-transfer-free route home, and that was my day. Pretty basic stuff I'd been wanting to do for a long time but never really had the motivation to take care of. If I ever get a real job, I've decided that sick days will be reserved for days in which I am not, in fact, sick, and when I am sick I'll suck it up and go to work. Speaking of which, Day One at Stuffy Hedge Fund was as beige as the walls. But I did learn that if I had to choose between being a receptionist for more than a week and sticking my hand in a meat grinder, I wouldn't hesitate to stick my hand in a meat grinder. (Apologies to any receptionists out there. You are made of stronger stuff than I.)