The O’Day offices are in the heart of midtown Manhattan. It’s convenient, because you can walk to pretty much any subway or bus you would ever need. It’s harrowing, though, because the neighborhood is very congested with aggressive drivers who are in a big hurry to sit in traffic at the Lincoln Tunnel and with buses full of people who want to tour around our city. Our offices are also a stone’s throw from The Port Authority, which is the biggest bus depot in the USA.
Recently I was walking to my office and crossing the street at 9th Avenue and 41st Street. 41st Street is where buses exit the Port Authority and cross 9th Avenue to get to the Lincoln Tunnel. It is also an intersection where people frequently break the “No right hand turn on a red light" law. Sure, they might not have the light, and there might be pedestrians in the way – but it’s more important that they HURRY UP and get to that tunnel so they can bask in the glory of bus fumes and road rage while they rush home to their miserable lives and ugly children.
Luckily, we have a lot more cops out on that corner now, because people keep getting run over in my neighborhood. Because drivers don’t realize that people actually live in my neighborhood and that pedestrians are just as important as drivers from the suburbs. But people who are in a big rush to get back to their lawnmowers and PTA meetings don’t really care about people who live in cities. They think we battle rats using sharpened sticks and duke it out over dumpster scraps. WELL, THEY’RE WRONG!
So I have the green light, and I’m crossing the street on the corner of 41st and 9th Avenue. And a BUS runs the light and almost HITS ME because the driver of the bus was TEXTING! He was TEXTING while DRIVING A BUS.
But there’s a cop on the corner, right? RIGHT! Thank goodness! Someone cares! But wait, what’s this?! THE COP IS TEXTING TOO so he doesn’t see anything. Were they texting each other? Was the bus driver texting, “Ha ha cop, I’m going to sneak past you again today!” and the cop texting, “No way bus driver, I’m gonna bust your ass!”
People, road rage is going to take on whole new proportions if folks don’t get their shit in order, ‘cause I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore. Our city is HOT, it’s filled with bus fumes and we sure as hell don’t need “VISITORS” driving like drunken rickshaw pullers all over us.
SO BACK DOWN and mind your manners! WE LIVE HERE. Don’t make us key your cars and push you down the subway stairs.
I look forward to hearing your stories of immense personal struggle and will continue to inspire you.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Monday, June 2, 2008
Lowes of Lloyd
Up at O’Day camp we have a lot of gardening to do. And, wanting to make healthy food for my plants, I was on a search for a composter. If you have a composter you can rake up your old leaves, your grass clippings, your garden scraps and even take vegetable and fruit scraps from your kitchen, put them in the compost container, tumble it regularly, and in about two weeks you have great fertilizing material for your garden.
None of the Mom and Pop stores in the area carry them, because they are too large to keep in stock.
A new Lowes opened up recently in Lloyd, a little town about 20 miles from O’Day Camp. I figured Lowes is always advertising their helpful, friendly and knowledgeable service, so I thought I’d give them a call. Plus I hear the local economy was hoping for a big boost by having the superstore in the area. Lots of people would be employed, and that’s a good thing.
The first time I called I spoke to a man who identified himself as the manager of the garden center. He said I should call back the following week, because he was going to order composters.
I called back the next week and asked a young man in the garden center if the composters had arrived. He asked me to hold, which I did, for eleven minutes. The young man then got back on the line and asked me if composter was a name brand or some kind of a garden tractor. “Do you know what a composter is?” I asked him. “Uhhh. No.”
Now, this usually wouldn’t bother me, but since the guy was working in the garden center and not in window treatments it kind of ticked me off. Especially since I had been on hold for so long.
“May I speak to your manager?" I asked.
I waited another eight minutes, being bounced from one department to another, when a man identifying himself as John from the garden center got on the line. He sounded very much like the manager I had spoken to the previous week.
“Hi, I spoke with the garden manager last week. He said he was ordering some composters and I’d like to pick one up. Could you check and make sure they’ve arrived?”
John put me on hold -- for another 11 minutes. He then got back on the line and told me rather than keep me waiting, he’d call me back with an answer.
He took my number -- and never called me back.
I called back a couple of times over the next two weeks, but no one at Lowes of Lloyd could answer my question as to whether or not the composers had arrived -- or if they had even been ordered.
I ordered my composter online.
I think the local economy is a victim of its residents.
I look forward to hearing your stories of immense personal struggle and will continue to inspire you.
None of the Mom and Pop stores in the area carry them, because they are too large to keep in stock.
A new Lowes opened up recently in Lloyd, a little town about 20 miles from O’Day Camp. I figured Lowes is always advertising their helpful, friendly and knowledgeable service, so I thought I’d give them a call. Plus I hear the local economy was hoping for a big boost by having the superstore in the area. Lots of people would be employed, and that’s a good thing.
The first time I called I spoke to a man who identified himself as the manager of the garden center. He said I should call back the following week, because he was going to order composters.
I called back the next week and asked a young man in the garden center if the composters had arrived. He asked me to hold, which I did, for eleven minutes. The young man then got back on the line and asked me if composter was a name brand or some kind of a garden tractor. “Do you know what a composter is?” I asked him. “Uhhh. No.”
Now, this usually wouldn’t bother me, but since the guy was working in the garden center and not in window treatments it kind of ticked me off. Especially since I had been on hold for so long.
“May I speak to your manager?" I asked.
I waited another eight minutes, being bounced from one department to another, when a man identifying himself as John from the garden center got on the line. He sounded very much like the manager I had spoken to the previous week.
“Hi, I spoke with the garden manager last week. He said he was ordering some composters and I’d like to pick one up. Could you check and make sure they’ve arrived?”
John put me on hold -- for another 11 minutes. He then got back on the line and told me rather than keep me waiting, he’d call me back with an answer.
He took my number -- and never called me back.
I called back a couple of times over the next two weeks, but no one at Lowes of Lloyd could answer my question as to whether or not the composers had arrived -- or if they had even been ordered.
I ordered my composter online.
I think the local economy is a victim of its residents.
I look forward to hearing your stories of immense personal struggle and will continue to inspire you.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Slinkies
I got an e-mail this morning from a client, and it really tickled my funny bone.
Some people are like Slinkies -- not really good for anything but they bring a smile to your face when pushed down the stairs.
Now, back when I was a criminal, before I had taken 120 hours of anger management courses plus the mandatory refresher course every five months, I was fond of pushing, shoving and punching any idiot who irked me or got in my way. Those were the days!
But of course I've embraced Powerful Positive Change (PPCTM) and have moved into new territory in my life.
These days, when encountering complete retards, I take a deep breath, count to ten -- twice if I have to, and I do my best not to take someone else's rude, stupid behavior personally. Easier said than done! So, as we go into Memorial Day weekend, let's keep our ire in check as our cities are invaded by slow-moving, slack-jawed tourists and as we sit on the highway like it's some kind of parking lot.
Take a deep breath, count to ten, and think of those slinkies!
I look forward to hearing your stories of immense personal struggle, and will continue to inspire you.
Some people are like Slinkies -- not really good for anything but they bring a smile to your face when pushed down the stairs.
Now, back when I was a criminal, before I had taken 120 hours of anger management courses plus the mandatory refresher course every five months, I was fond of pushing, shoving and punching any idiot who irked me or got in my way. Those were the days!
But of course I've embraced Powerful Positive Change (PPCTM) and have moved into new territory in my life.
These days, when encountering complete retards, I take a deep breath, count to ten -- twice if I have to, and I do my best not to take someone else's rude, stupid behavior personally. Easier said than done! So, as we go into Memorial Day weekend, let's keep our ire in check as our cities are invaded by slow-moving, slack-jawed tourists and as we sit on the highway like it's some kind of parking lot.
Take a deep breath, count to ten, and think of those slinkies!
I look forward to hearing your stories of immense personal struggle, and will continue to inspire you.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
He Says The UHO Is Not A Scam
On Monday March 24 I posted a diatribe entitled, “Mr. Hobo The Selfish Bum from The United Homeless Organization.” In that post I called the UHO a scam.
I later received this e-mail from Vonte Vakel Johnson, UHO worker ID# 2747. (Please read the March 24 post and Vonte's very eye-opening and enlightening response to how the UHO is supposed to work.)
Sometimes, in order to improve ourselves, we have to be willing to be wrong. And sometimes we have to sit down and eat a plate of crow. I am doing that right now, and I hope you will have a bite or two with me. A bite of SCAM crow!
Thank you for your e-mail Vonte. I wish you all the best. It's nice to find someone else who is also on the bumpy road to self improvement.
E-mail From Vonte:
I responded to your observation of that uho worker. I beleive in self help only if you are willing to upgade your self. Like i said in your blogger site sandraoday.blogspot.com. I'm a uho worker. if there is no improvement on the part of the worker than and only than is it a F**KING scam, and that is coming from a UHO worker who actually talks with homeless and previously homeless people, AND works the tables.
I'm a worker that is geting back up on my feet. UHO is not long term employment. It is to get us up from the street back into main stream society. If the worker doesn't want to upgrade themselves, DON'T GIVE THAT F**KER S**T. I sure h*ll wouldn't. time and money are one in the same, and if i don't have time to waste; what does that tell you about my money? I work the tables to get enough money to take care of my basic need and to save enough to fully enter back into mainstream society. currently i'm making progress in entering in to mainstream society.
This organization was designed as a self help program and a first step program. if the worker doesn't want to take the steps to remedy his situation, THEN F**K HIM/HER. don't hinder my goals in upgrading myself. I don't have time for BULLS**T when it comes to improving my situation for the better. If an A**HOLE was to F**K up there life, let them go somewhere where they can facility there F**KED UP behavior. Don't facilitate that S**T in a organization that's helping me get up on my feet. I don't blame you for calling it a scam, i'd call it a scam also if i didn't see any improvement on the part of the worker.
It's A**HOLES like "Mr. Hobo the Self Bum" who F**K it up for workers like me who want to change there life for the better. My table is located on 58thstreet and 5th avenue. my name is vonte vakel johnson and my email is vontevakeljohnson@gmail.com and vontevakeljohnson@yahoo.com
please feel free to send you praise and/or critisizmes to my email
or come the the location i'm at to scream at me and/or curse me out. this I'll gladly accept with a humble and meek spirit. and on this note i bid you adui.
sincerly your's
vonte vakel johnson
UHO worker ID# 2747
I look forward to hearing your stories of immense personal struggle, and will continue to inspire you .
I later received this e-mail from Vonte Vakel Johnson, UHO worker ID# 2747. (Please read the March 24 post and Vonte's very eye-opening and enlightening response to how the UHO is supposed to work.)
Sometimes, in order to improve ourselves, we have to be willing to be wrong. And sometimes we have to sit down and eat a plate of crow. I am doing that right now, and I hope you will have a bite or two with me. A bite of SCAM crow!
Thank you for your e-mail Vonte. I wish you all the best. It's nice to find someone else who is also on the bumpy road to self improvement.
E-mail From Vonte:
I responded to your observation of that uho worker. I beleive in self help only if you are willing to upgade your self. Like i said in your blogger site sandraoday.blogspot.com. I'm a uho worker. if there is no improvement on the part of the worker than and only than is it a F**KING scam, and that is coming from a UHO worker who actually talks with homeless and previously homeless people, AND works the tables.
I'm a worker that is geting back up on my feet. UHO is not long term employment. It is to get us up from the street back into main stream society. If the worker doesn't want to upgrade themselves, DON'T GIVE THAT F**KER S**T. I sure h*ll wouldn't. time and money are one in the same, and if i don't have time to waste; what does that tell you about my money? I work the tables to get enough money to take care of my basic need and to save enough to fully enter back into mainstream society. currently i'm making progress in entering in to mainstream society.
This organization was designed as a self help program and a first step program. if the worker doesn't want to take the steps to remedy his situation, THEN F**K HIM/HER. don't hinder my goals in upgrading myself. I don't have time for BULLS**T when it comes to improving my situation for the better. If an A**HOLE was to F**K up there life, let them go somewhere where they can facility there F**KED UP behavior. Don't facilitate that S**T in a organization that's helping me get up on my feet. I don't blame you for calling it a scam, i'd call it a scam also if i didn't see any improvement on the part of the worker.
It's A**HOLES like "Mr. Hobo the Self Bum" who F**K it up for workers like me who want to change there life for the better. My table is located on 58thstreet and 5th avenue. my name is vonte vakel johnson and my email is vontevakeljohnson@gmail.com and vontevakeljohnson@yahoo.com
please feel free to send you praise and/or critisizmes to my email
or come the the location i'm at to scream at me and/or curse me out. this I'll gladly accept with a humble and meek spirit. and on this note i bid you adui.
sincerly your's
vonte vakel johnson
UHO worker ID# 2747
I look forward to hearing your stories of immense personal struggle, and will continue to inspire you .
Monday, May 5, 2008
Ziggy the Cat
I had the luxury of spending the past two weeks up at O’Day Camp. O’Day Camp is a former migrant worker compound that we’re turning into a retreat for my workshops and intensive one on-one-power sessions.
Camp is beautiful in May -- the birds chirp, the flowers bloom and the river is usually non-threatening. We have all kinds of critters zooming around the yard -- chipmunks, bats, goldfinches, even an opossum or two.
Ziggy, our camp cat, loves to sit in the window and watch all the action. He sits up straight and makes all kinds of nutty sounds. He chatters and shakes and cries – like he’s just dying to get outside and kill something. Like he has to get outside really, really bad. Like if he doesn’t get out there he’ll go crazy! So I take him outside. And what does he do? Chase birds? Hunt mice?
No.
He panics. Sometimes he frantically rushes from one green patch of grass to another, chomping like he’s a grazing goat. Then he starts getting spooked by everything, the chirp of a bird or a car door slamming two miles away -- he has a total freak out and runs to the porch and cries to be let back inside. Once back in the house, he cries and yearns to be back outside with the birds.
I think Ziggy likes wanting the birds more than being in a position where he can actually catch them. I think a lot of people are like that, too. They’d rather cry over dreams that didn’t come true rather than hunt them down and tear them to into something new. Those are frightened, lazy people. You might even be one of them.
But you don’t have to be.
I challenge you to move forward through lazy fear into active fear. I challenge you to apply a little determination and a lot of imagination to what your life can become. I believe, through reading my blog and buying my books and signing up for O’Day Camp workshops you could break through your lazy fear to a whole new level of active fear. And, between you and me, active fear is a more fascinating more enjoyable level of fear.
I look forward to hearing your stories of immense personal struggle, and will continue to inspire you .
Camp is beautiful in May -- the birds chirp, the flowers bloom and the river is usually non-threatening. We have all kinds of critters zooming around the yard -- chipmunks, bats, goldfinches, even an opossum or two.
Ziggy, our camp cat, loves to sit in the window and watch all the action. He sits up straight and makes all kinds of nutty sounds. He chatters and shakes and cries – like he’s just dying to get outside and kill something. Like he has to get outside really, really bad. Like if he doesn’t get out there he’ll go crazy! So I take him outside. And what does he do? Chase birds? Hunt mice?
No.
He panics. Sometimes he frantically rushes from one green patch of grass to another, chomping like he’s a grazing goat. Then he starts getting spooked by everything, the chirp of a bird or a car door slamming two miles away -- he has a total freak out and runs to the porch and cries to be let back inside. Once back in the house, he cries and yearns to be back outside with the birds.
I think Ziggy likes wanting the birds more than being in a position where he can actually catch them. I think a lot of people are like that, too. They’d rather cry over dreams that didn’t come true rather than hunt them down and tear them to into something new. Those are frightened, lazy people. You might even be one of them.
But you don’t have to be.
I challenge you to move forward through lazy fear into active fear. I challenge you to apply a little determination and a lot of imagination to what your life can become. I believe, through reading my blog and buying my books and signing up for O’Day Camp workshops you could break through your lazy fear to a whole new level of active fear. And, between you and me, active fear is a more fascinating more enjoyable level of fear.
I look forward to hearing your stories of immense personal struggle, and will continue to inspire you .
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
It's Got Nothing To Do With You
Here’s something you hear in New York frequently, “It’s got nothing to do with you.” You hear it on the street all the time, especially from people screaming on their cell phones.
But there is terrific truth to the phrase, “It’s got nothing to do with you.” It just means you shouldn’t take everything so darn personally. Nothing anyone in the world does has anything to do with you. Even if someone is doing something really terrific, or even something really crappy to you at the moment, it has nothing to do with you. What someone else is doing, saying, thinking or feeling has everything to do with them, and nothing to do with you.
Try to take comfort in that.
The one thing we all have in common is that we’re always thinking of ourselves. Our actions, viewpoints and words have everything in the world to do with us and what we want and how we want others to see us.
It has nothing to do with you. And that’s a good thing.
I look forward to hearing your stories of immense personal struggle, and will continue to inspire you .
E-mail Sandra at PowerofSandra@aol.com
But there is terrific truth to the phrase, “It’s got nothing to do with you.” It just means you shouldn’t take everything so darn personally. Nothing anyone in the world does has anything to do with you. Even if someone is doing something really terrific, or even something really crappy to you at the moment, it has nothing to do with you. What someone else is doing, saying, thinking or feeling has everything to do with them, and nothing to do with you.
Try to take comfort in that.
The one thing we all have in common is that we’re always thinking of ourselves. Our actions, viewpoints and words have everything in the world to do with us and what we want and how we want others to see us.
It has nothing to do with you. And that’s a good thing.
I look forward to hearing your stories of immense personal struggle, and will continue to inspire you .
E-mail Sandra at PowerofSandra@aol.com
Monday, April 7, 2008
Treat Yourself
Oh, I just worked really hard today ...
Oh, my boss was such a hard-nose today ...
My kids are driving me nuts ...
I am so completely stressed out ...
I deserve a treat! A cookie. A box of candy-covered popcorn. A mocha-frappuccino hazelnut vanilla bean latte with whipped-cream and caramel butterscotch sauce on it.
People, we all deserve treats, but that doesn’t mean we should have them.
Oh, but my day was so hard. I’ll feel deprived if I don’t indulge!
Oh, you’ll feel deprived like all those people who don’t live in the top 1% of wealth in the world? Like those people “over there” who don’t have clean drinking water, let alone butterscotch? You’ll feel deprived like they do, and that would be bad, right?
People, we don’t fill ourselves up with treats to keep ourselves happy. We fill ourselves up with treats to help us maintain distance from reality.
Walk down any Main Street U.S.A. into super-mall America and you’re walking into one of the biggest, most mass-marketed soul pacifier factories in existence. Banners and signs waving in Red White and Blue that read, “Make today special, try a new latte.”
Make today truly special, folks. Don’t buy yourself that treat for a change and see where that takes your imagination. Stop pacifying your spirit, set it on fire.
I look forward to hearing your stories of immense personal struggle, and will continue to inspire you .
Oh, my boss was such a hard-nose today ...
My kids are driving me nuts ...
I am so completely stressed out ...
I deserve a treat! A cookie. A box of candy-covered popcorn. A mocha-frappuccino hazelnut vanilla bean latte with whipped-cream and caramel butterscotch sauce on it.
People, we all deserve treats, but that doesn’t mean we should have them.
Oh, but my day was so hard. I’ll feel deprived if I don’t indulge!
Oh, you’ll feel deprived like all those people who don’t live in the top 1% of wealth in the world? Like those people “over there” who don’t have clean drinking water, let alone butterscotch? You’ll feel deprived like they do, and that would be bad, right?
People, we don’t fill ourselves up with treats to keep ourselves happy. We fill ourselves up with treats to help us maintain distance from reality.
Walk down any Main Street U.S.A. into super-mall America and you’re walking into one of the biggest, most mass-marketed soul pacifier factories in existence. Banners and signs waving in Red White and Blue that read, “Make today special, try a new latte.”
Make today truly special, folks. Don’t buy yourself that treat for a change and see where that takes your imagination. Stop pacifying your spirit, set it on fire.
I look forward to hearing your stories of immense personal struggle, and will continue to inspire you .
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