Long days equal great sleep

I'm trying to be better about keeping you informed. 

I know that there aren't too many people who read this meager blog, but I appreciate those who do. I'm actually in the process of considering some changes to this here blog. Stay tuned for more on that later. 

.....

Today I finished a three day crash course in GRE for a group of six undergrads at Brooklyn College. We met for four hours on each of the days this week. 

Four hours is a long class. 

But I had a ton of fun doing it. Being able to help these people, who are basically my peers, was great. They were eager to learn and hopefully they'll all do well on their upcoming GRE test. 

I'll be teaching another class coming up in September over near Philadelphia and I'm excited to see what other kinds of students will roll into my life. But for now, still trucking along. I've got a couple regular students and my summer classes havent quite wrapped up yet. My last few days have been 11am to 10pm filled start to finish with students or travel between students. 

Today was no exception. So as I crash into sleep (I'm not gonna go easy. It's gonna be 'boom!' Out.) I'm hoping you all had a great day too. 

Until next time. 

Living the life.

Living the life. 

A fairly popular phrase in my opinion. But what does it mean? We all are living. And that's called life. I'm  referring to the type of life we see as standard. I am living the life in NYC but I'm not financially secure. I'm just living adventurously and happily. Which is all I need. But today my choice in life style got a pretty good reality check. And I firmly believe these things happen for a reason. Here's the story.... 

The NYC subway has an array of interesting characters. I can honestly say I see something worth mentioning almost daily. But the ones that get me are the panhandlers. There are the people you see multiple times and you're not sure how much truth there is to their story of abuse, economic troubles, and illness. But a few take you by surprise. 

Today on my way into work a middle aged man in a wheelchair rolled onto the train. He was hunched a bit and had a knee brace as well as the chair. His story was of job loss after hurricane Sandy and apartment loss due to mold (also caused by Sandy). He asked for a little money to get his wife lunch and the train fare back to Queens and the shelter he was staying in. 

Now, my immediate thought was to ignore. I see so many people asking for money and it is illegal to give money on the subway. So I ignore. But then a few questions came up....

- How far had he traveled today? His story seemed plausible. How far had he had to wheel himself? 

- What did he do before? He mentioned losing a job. So at some point in his life he had a job and presumably made an honest living. 

I wondered if he had ever said 'this is the life' and he was talking about having a two bedroom apartment and a bed which would seem luxurious now. 

I have a job. A roof. Clothes and food. And usually I can't stop for a bagel on my way to work because it's not in my budget, but I can afford a bag of bagels at the store and toast my own. 

It was a meaningful pause in my rather busy day to think about the luxuries I enjoy (like morning Starbucks) that I really take for granted. 

My hope is to never take it all for granted. Appreciate what I have and do my best to send a little good will out into the universe. 

God Bless 

Until next time.