Joe

Joe was my boss when I worked at a cell phone retail store in high school. He was a client of my dads. He was an ex Israeli soldier and would sometimes talk to me about it.

"Andy, do you know how to kill somebody with this exactoknife? In the army I would hide behind sandbags and when the Arabs would come over I would go up under the rib cage like this and kill them. Easy. Now break down those boxes."

This store was so empty all the time, I worked for weeks and still didn't learn the things I should have learned simply from lack of practice. I made commission off of everything so I did try hard to sell stuff though.

Even so, he questioned a lot of the sales and sometimes made "adjustments". I did as much as I could but the store just wasn't doing well and I steadily got less shifts until it just ended. It wouldn't be the last job in which I struggled to find stuff to do.

Monique Giunta

Monique was one of my roommates in Astoria, which I just left after a four month stay. I think I hung out with her on a total of 10 occasions while I was there. She came to my fraternity formal with me and that was the most time I ever spent with her. We always had a lot of fun together, and I trusted her even though we only knew each other a short time. It's a shame because I think she's an awesome person and I wish I had been able to spend more time with her. Hopefully I will in the future.

Monique was a good roommate, she kept clean, pitched in for household supplies, brought me food...I love that. She wasn't around but she was easy going and never complained about anything.

Monique was a perfect example of how in this city, nothing is a sure thing, not even that you'll see the people you live with a couple times a week. Everybody is constantly on the go, having a million different things to do and changing plans all the time. Even in the city, it's like some people are a million miles away.

Blog reflection

So obviously it's been a little difficult to get to this EVERY day. I want to explain certain thoughts I've been having about this blog.

1. There are some people you just don't want to write about. Certain things are too private for this forum, or else you just don't feel you can capture the right emotions in a short blog. I know that's why I hesitated to write about Grace this whole time. While the product is "nice" it doesn't really get to the core of our friendship.

2. Are there actually 365 people to write about? I'm not sure. I mean I easily have 50-100 people I'd love to say something about, but sometimes I really feel like I'm stretching. Certain people you want to save for a while. If I write about all my close friends and family first, who am I going to be writing about in six months?

3. This has allowed me to tell some really big stories, but I feel like I'm just doing filler a lot of the time, nothing can compare to some of the more epic things I've written.

So what do I do? Well, first of all, sometimes I'm not going to backdate. Right now I'm five days behind and instead of stressing about it, I'm gonna just drop them, maybe the blog will run more than a year. Writing 5 quick entries in one day is probably more confusing to people actually reading the blog. I'm told there's actually a few of them. Also, this is the first time I've written in a while and it's inspired me to do some different things.

I'm considering changing this blog to a slightly different format where I can write about anything I want that is significant to me. We'll see. For now, thanks for reading.

Michelle Vargas (July 22)

My other new roommate and also an alumni of our sketch comedy and improv shows. Nicknamed Smush, Michelle and I weren't always the closest of friends but in the past couple years we have grown close. I frequently find with Michelle there are a lot of similarities in the way we think about things and deal with our emotions.

I don't want to write all sappy right now so here's five things about Smush.

1. She is a truly stellar editor.

2. A really fun and adaptable person who seems to be able to hold her own no matter where she ends up.

3. One of the best singers I have ever met.

4. Always looking to pass on things that are meaningful to her to those she cares about.

5. Has no shame when it comes to performing (almost).

It has been awesome to go through this post college transition with Smush and I can't wait to start working with her again. TOMORROW!

Grace Ann Helbig (July 21)

Grace is the type of girl who people fall in love with almost immediately upon meeting. I met Grace during my sophomore year of college and she almost instantly became my best friend.

As soon as we started talking, Grace wanted to do a show for the almost nonexistant TV station at our school. From then on, she became a catalyst for nearly every good decision I made in my life. We both changed our majors to contracts and chose our own classes for the remainder of college.

With a few friends, we pioneered the beginning of the revival of the college TV channel. We created the college's first ever longform inprov show without any faculty support and packed the house every night.

Grace helped me through a tough period after college, she was my inspiration behind making the right moves to get a job and an apartment in NY. She introduced me to the PIT where I've grown as a performer and currently do tech work.

I honestly think my life might be drastically different right now if not for Grace. Her drive has inspired me over and over again to push my limits and take risks and they always pay off. Sometimes we joke and tell people we're siblings but I really do feel that way about her. Grace has been like a twin sister to me for a long time and soon we'll be living together in Brooklyn. I can only imagine what comes next.

Carla Colucci (July 20)

Carla is the office manager here at CESD.

She is the reason I have a job. Carla went to Ramapo and graduated the year I greduated high school. Now she has a habit of hiring Ramapo grads. She was amazing to work under and is the go to person for almost any office problem, whether it's related to office supplies or things of a more personal nature. Carla is one of the most trustworthy people I know and I never hesitate to talk to her about anything.

I just wanted to mention her because I feel like I would never have gotten a job like this without her and been stuck in NJ forever. Probably not true but it feels that way.

Carla is also my hero. But for real.

Elissa (July 19)

Elissa is an assistant at CESD with me.

Yesterday, (which was the 21st, but I'm backdating), I was walking to my office and my arm bumped into this tall guys arm. He dropped his newspaper and glasses that he was holding. It wasn't my fault, we just bumped each other. I handed him his glasses and continued walking but he called after me. He showed me that his glasses had a crack in the lens and started to rudely insist that I pay for half of it. I was unsure what to do but suddenly Elissa came up and asked if there was a problem. Let's do this in almost authentic dialogue.


Guy: Who's this? You're bodyguard?

Elissa: No, I'm his coworker, is there a problem?

Guy: My glasses are cracked.

Me: Look people bump into each other, I'm sorry about your glasses but I can't pay for them.

Elissa: Let's go.

Guy: Oh, hide behind your bodyguard, yeah walk away you bitch. That's right little girl I called you a bitch!

I find it hard to believe this guy actually though that would elicit sympathy, but whatever.
YAYYYY MONDAYS! Elissa is my hero.

Kelly Dolak (July 18)

Kelly was my college advisor. For as long as I knew her she was working on a documentary about Afghanistan. She was always the first to support a creative idea or anything outside of the box. She was responsible for helping Grace and I create our sketch comedy show, Baked Goods.

We took an idea development class with Kelly to form our idea. After that, we wanted to go into full production. Kelly actually transformed her class "TV for New Media" into a production class for our show. We added the rest of our cast to the class; Brian, Rich and Michelle. Anybody else that signed up basically became part of our production team. While Grace and I wrote most of the early sketches, the cast members all eventually joined the creative process. We even ended up doing most of the editing. Despite other class members sometimes complaining about us doing all of the work, Kelly seemed content to let us pretty much do whatever we wanted.

While the final products were sometimes less than desirable, we learned a ton about production, writing, editing and working with others, especially under awful time constraints.

Kelly also allowed for me to do my ridiculously unorthodox internship, chronicled here weeks ago. She never gave me a hard time about not following all the rules and was content with everything I talked to her about. I always felt like I could be completely honest with Kelly and she never steered me wrong.

Kelly was really just another crazy creative type who actually completely understood me. For all of her absentmindedness and quirkiness, she was one of the most influential people in my college years simply because she let me do things my way.

Nick Houghkirk (July 17)

I knew Nick ever since about 6th grade and was never friends with him. In fact, I'd always thought he was a bully. He never did anything to me but I guess since he hung out with somebody who was an actual bully, I just assumed he was as well. After high school, Nick and I began to hang out and I realized that he was actually a really great guy. Nick has been a loyal friend and is somebody I fully misjudged throughout years of school.

Nick is also an extremely hard worker and one of the healthiest people I know. We don't always agree on everything, he has extreme opinions on a lot of things, especially those regarding people and the things they do being right or wrong. However, these opinions also translate into practice. If Nick does something, he does it all the way. Though I may work on my goals quite as rigorously, I have taken inspiration from him time and again when making changes in my life.

Iyabode (July 16)

Her name is pronounced Ee-ya-bo-day, but she goes by Yabby. Yabby does not believe anything. She was in Acting for TV and Film class with Grace and I.

Our professor would bring in scripts of random movie scenes. In one scene, a man was arguing with a woman about what to do with a baby. I don't remember the exact circumstances, either she couldn't afford the baby or didn't want it or something. Regardless the guy in the scene had a stron opinion on the matter.

During the comment portion of the class, Yabby raised her hand.

Yabby: "I have a question, why does that guy get to say anything about what happens? It's not his kid!"

Prof. Topol: "Well that's just the scene, we're talking about what we thought of the scene."

Yabby: "I thought the scene was bad! That guy does not have a say what happen's to the baby! It's not yo' baby!"

Well Grace and I loved this line and "It's not yo' baby" became our tagline for pretty much anything we wrote together, especially our sketch comedy show a year later.

During the winter semester that year, I went to London for intercession. On our first day, the head of security at the college we were staying at was explaining how to be safe and gave us some information for our benefit. He explained a couple of things that had happened when people had not followed the safety guidelines. He told us how somebody had tried to climb into the park after dark and impaled his arm on the fence. Upon hearing this, Yabby spoke up.

"Uh-uh, I do not feel safe! Did you hear that? Some guy got his arm caught on a fence and it cut right through him, that is not safe at all! How can you feel safe, what kind of security is this?"

Another day, we were visiting one of the Queen's castles. They have British soldiers posted who are not allowed to move at all. Yabby approached one of the guards and while standing right in front of him she looked around and started yelling.

"That is not a real soldier, that guy is too young. He's just an actor!"

I went and asked a tour guide, not feeling good about what was happening. The tour guide replied to me and the group around us that the man was indeed a soldier who had just returned from a tour in Iraq. Yabby still didn't seem to believe it but I think I detected the slightest of smirks on the soldier's face for having her proven wrong.

Michelle Lugerner (July 14)

Despite having a different male roommate each year of college, Michelle is the person I "lived" with the longest. She lived in the same apartment as the girl I was dating junior year and by the time that was over, she was dating my fraternity brother Gilligan who became my roommate in the house the following year.

Michelle was the best roommate I had. She wasn't messy. She showered regularly. She made Gilligan shower. She fed me occasionally. She was there for me when my relationship fell apart along with another one the following year. On the list of people I miss most after leaving New Jersey, Michelle is near the top of it.

Rachel Citron (July 13)

Rachel is my cousin, there is no blood between us but we have a family connection. Until I moved to NY, my interaction with Rachel was limited to a handful of family events over the years, but we always had a good time. When I moved to the city, Rachel introduced me to all of her friends and I never felt like the new guy. Everybody was amazing and over the past several months these people have become my closest friends.

Rachel throws amazing parties. She picks a theme such as the Wild West, The 90's or Alice in Wonderland and gets food and drinks to match. There is no shortage of the cool people Rachel brings together. Because of her, I never felt alone in this city. She made the transition more than easy, she made it exciting. I have never felt alone in a city where I knew very few people at the outset.

Rachel is family, but she helped me gain a whole new one when I came out here.

Sue E (July 12)

Sue was my bus driver in sixth grade. She was certifiable. Along with speeding and not minding knocking over stops signs, she actually egged on kids who made fun of other kids. Her son George was on the bus and she seemed to enjoy it when he picked on other kids.

Sue wasn't mean in her own right, but she seemed to be of the belief that kids should be mean to each other in order to be toughened up. The woman was crazy. She was not our bus driver in seventh grade.

Pat Chang (July 11)

Freshman year of college, we all had to pick a first year seminar. I fought my way into NYTC, Not Your Typical Class, and in case you hadn't guessed from the acronym, it was New York-centric. On Saturdays, we would take trips into the city and get guided tours around different sections, go to different restaurants, see shows and go to museums etc.

Pat and his wife Ann designed this class to familiarize students with NY and it was awesome. Along with exclusive tours from some very cool people, we also ate for free at different restaurants each week including Soul Food, Ethiopian, Vegetarian, Sushi and Indian among other things. We saw Avenue Q, walked around Inwood, explored the village where I got my ear pierced and took a tour of Webster Hall.

It really was an experience like no other and sealed my love of this city.

Andy Gleaner (July 10)

Yes that's me, and I haven't run out of other people to talk about. I just have some things I want to say and they're about me, so here it is.

I've had to deal with a lot of stress and disappointment in the past couple weeks. It's not any one thing, but a combination of things from all aspects of my life going to shit all at once. I wasn't myself for a little while, but only a brief period of time. Now that I'm on the other side I came to a couple conclusions.

I am not the same person I was a year ago, or even six months ago. The things that have been thrown at me recently would have been enough in the past to seriously mess with my state of mind for a long time. As things are now, I took a few days, I absorbed the situations, I worked out my feelings and now I feel better than ever.

The truth is, my life is really great. I have a job that sustains me, even if it isn't perfect. I live in the city I've always wanted to live in. I am friends with the greatest people on the planet. They are all around me and no matter what goes wrong or what disappointment I face, these are people who will always be there, and knowing that makes all the difference.

So I want to mention Brian and Grace; two friends who have seen me at my lowest and highest, my best and my worst. Two people that have been my friends for years and are always there. The ones who know me better than I know myself sometimes. You guys are my best friends and I thank you so much for always knowing how to give me some perspective, and then getting drunk with me.

Even more important though is that I know myself, and now that I've come this far, there is nothing that is going to stop me or bring me down. I've become the person I want to be and I will never go back to the place I was in last year. Things aren't perfect, but they are great and I look forward to the future because it only gets better from here.

Marco (July 9)

Winter of my junior year I went to London for two weeks for an intercession study abroad. A large portion of those of us going banded together to be branded as the party kids as opposed to the endlessly studying kids and the kids who were somewhere in between. Marco was arguably one of the craziest in the bunch though I was the most infamous for missing class and being horrendously hungover.

Marco, however, constantly wanted to play pranks on people. This usually came in the form of smacking people in the face with a fistful of baby powder, or dumping a bag of quarters on top of them while they were sleeping. But he made a special exception for me. One day when I was in the shower he stole all of my clothes and my towel and dropped them in front of my dormroom door, fully intending on forcing me to come out into the hallway stark naked. After panicking for a minute I took down the shower curtain and went to retrieve my things. He hadn't realized I could do this so I avoided the naked pictures and half a dozen people waiting to see me come out as such.

I replaced his shampoo with maple syrup and some other stuff. I never found out if it worked.

Chris G (July 8)

This is the only real fight I ever got into.

You might have guessed, if you ever met me or read this blog, that I was picked on in grade school. Well on the bus in 6th grade, there was one kid who got picked on more than me. His nickname was Turtle because of the massively oversized green backpack he always wore. His shirts were always tucked into to shorts that were too small on him. He was a small tan skinned kid who looked like he was already going bald.

Without divulging too much, his family life was less than pleasant, and apparently as a side effect, the kid claimed he couldn't feel pain. He was also aggressive and rude to people as opposed to me who really was just picked on for being nerdy. Chris was trying to compensate for something by bragging about things that nobody cared about and making ridiculous claims about his supposed accomplishments.

Somehow, we were forced at odds with one another and one day it turned to a fist fight. Being bigger, I easily got the upper hand. I repeatedly smashed his head against the floor of the bus which made him laugh, that made me angry. His tiny fists didn't really hurt me either, but I have to imagine that my head being hit on a hard floor over and over would have hurt. Eventually he reached up and ripped my shirt, which really upset me.

I honestly can't remember what happened in the vice principals office, but it was just one of many times Mr. Ronkin would be seeing me over the next couple years.

Matt Fried (July 7)

Matt is one of a few friends that I have that completely disappeared from my life for a LONG time only to come back and be better than friends than they were in the first place. We did community theater together during high school and then went away to college, never to see one another again.

One day at the PIT, not only do I see Matt on stage, he then goes and talks to Grace, who is like a sister to me. It's a small world.

Since then, I've worked with Matt doing improv and he's connected with some of my other friends in the city. The funny thing is, I feel like he is so similar to me in so many ways and he's one of the people I call for any reason; when I really need to get something off my chest, when there's a party to go to or something to collaborate on. Without a big dose of coincidence, I wouldn't be friends with Matt now.

Everything happens for a reason.

Jimmy the Janitor (July 6)

There was something about Jimmy that made me feel like I was the coolest kid around. He was a big jolly black janitor in my elementary school and I'll be damned if he wasn't one of the happiest people I ever met, though I'm fully aware at my current age that he probably had problems like everyone else.

Jimmy was always smiling, and saying "Hey Buddy, how's it going today?" or "You da man!". You know, whatever it is that makes 8 year olds feel cool. Jimmy may have just been a janitor but he left an impression on me, and when he became the janitor at my middle school I was all too pleased that he was still around.

Dr. Letterman (July 5)

Dr. Letterman was the worst!
He was the first psychologist I was brought to when I started refusing to go to school in seventh grade. Even as a petulant 12 year old I knew this guy was a moron. Every single thing I mentioned seemed to be the root of my problems according to him.

Dr. Idiot: What did you have for breakfast?

Andy: Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Dr. Idiot: How does that make you feel?

Andy: Full.

Dr. Idiot: Do you think you eat sugar because you're upset about your father leaving?

At this point if I'd had a lighter on me I would have been setting his twelve trillion certificates aflame. Then we'd really have some things to discuss. Well he was convinced that my addiction to video games was a yearning to escape reality because of my inability to deal with the real world and while that almost makes sense, it would have been better if he didn't think that my habit of breathing was brought on by misplaced anger as well.

Since I clearly hated him, he showed me pictures of Stanford which I enjoyed and I decided I wanted to go there briefly. This made me like him for four minutes until he started explaining that if I kept up my behavior, I would never go to Stanford. Even at my worst, I was able to be reasonable enough with my mother to get her to agree that this guy was never going to help. We found some new doctors after that.

Dr. Merkowski (July 4)

My dentist is the guy who will talk the entire time he has a bunch of tools in your mouth. This would be fine except that he tends to ask questions. He also sometimes tells the same stories about things currently going on which is very strange for somebody you only see twice a year. Since he has kids close to my age I hear the stories about them going to college, where they are going, what they are studying etc. and though I don't remember the details from the previous time, I remember hearing them before.

He also makes the same speech about his procedure every time, word for word, as if I don't know what to expect after 20 years of dental exams.

He asks me about sports, my opinion on the war, how college was going (it's been a while since I've been), how my grandparents are doing, etc. etc.

My answers are usually something like this "Grah, uh uh...erm."

I guess if you want to be a talker, it's easy if you get a job where your clients can't speak for most of the time you're with them.

Dave Powers

Dave was in my level 1 and 2 improv classes at the PIT. At the beginning of each class we went around and talked about what brought us to improv. Dave told the most touching story about he had started doing it for a friend who had died. The passion that he showed in those moments truly inspired me.

Dave is one of the strangest and most interesting people I've met in this city. He is hardworking and independent and a great friend who calls just because he genuinely cares to know "What's up?".

Every time he posts on a a facebook wall he leaves a lolcats picture. He makes references he knows I won't understand, sometimes because they are just out of his head. He's a joy to work with on stage and although there is very little similar about our lifestyles, he inspires me to follow my heart because he has gone through some incredible hardships and continues to smile and pursue his dreams.

Dave, I know you read this, here's to you buddy.

Debra B (July 2)

Debra was my 2nd "girlfriend" as near as I can remember. I use the quotes because I wouldn't want it to detract from when I eventually talk about an actual relationship. In third and fourth grade, we were pretty much inseparable in school. Our third grade field trip to a farm was probably my favorite memory from that time because we got to eat lunch outside together and hold hands and do things that third graders do when they like each other.

The summer before 5th grade I went over to Debra's house. We were out jumping on her trampoline when she said something to me that I will remember for as long as I live.

"I would kiss you right now, but I have this cold sore on my mouth and I don't want you to get it."
While I am eternally grateful for the sentiment, it's still gross, and so my first kiss would have to wait for a couple more years.

A couple weeks later, I returned home from camp and my grandmother told me a girl had called but she couldn't remember the message. I went to call Debra back and the phone had been disconnected. When I tried again the following day another family was living there. I never saw or heard from Debra again, but I know that she's married now so I think the breakup goes without saying.

Jeff Price

Jeff is the type of guy I would have hated in High School. He came off as a popular, arrogant, cocky jock. All things he himself admitted openly to being, except the jock part when he stopped playing soccer after freshman year. Fortunately I met him sophomore year when I was ready to expand my social horizons. He had the tendency to be downright scary while I was pledging but I never resented him for it, he was simply good at yelling. However, from the first time I met him, I felt like we would always be good friends and it turned out to be true.

Jeff's arrogance more or less just turned out to be an abundance of confidence which rubbed off on me so that I soon began to look at the whole world differently. He believed that I could have whatever I wanted if I asked for it the right way. Our friendship goes both ways though and there were times when he came to me on how to deal with other kinds of situations.

Jeff was one of the key people that helped me grow into who I am now, instilling in me the confidence to not sit back and let opportunities pass me by. I hope I had a similar effect on him.

From Jeff I learned that friends come in all forms and sometimes the best ones are the ones you'd never expect.