And then it started raining

I haven't thought of a title for this yet, but the girl in the center is named Valerie, and I think she will probably show up again. Perhaps in her new job she will make friends with Nina (from West Jersey). I can think of several things I would have done differently in this picture if I were doing it again, but I am beginning to think that if I spend a lot of time on anything, it will be of quality regardless of my biased feelings about it

Same Hat Same Hat is translating Shintaro Kago's manga Dance! Kremlin Palace! which has been amusing me recently.

I found out this week my boss at the Science Center frontloaded all my hours this month, so Monday night at Bound'ry was the last time I will work until Saturday, when I start shifts again at both places. I've got enough for rent, and I'm going to start a whole lot more hours in July, so it's fine by me. Four and a half day weekend, here I come!

I got a library card today from the Nashville Public system. I had been using Vanderbilt's library for all my needs up until now, but the college's selection of (ah... ahem, uh) children's literature is somewhat lacking, for reasons that are not entirely beyond me.

What I have been doing all this time

Though I've told some of you this in person, to verify I am in fact working two jobs right now, and they are completely different from each other in almost every way. Both these companies, however, shape a distinctive part of Nashville's identity in their own way.

The Adventure Science Center looks like a giant electric castle. It is pretty hard to miss if you are driving down any of Nashville's interstates (except 440 I think). I work the front desk, which means I sell people admission tickets/memberships and give people directions over the phone. Lots of sitting is involved. Occasionally I will run the flight simulator ride (BlueMax it is called), which is sort of like being inside a giant can of soda pop as someone shakes it up, except you are the one doing the shaking. I usually work from 9:30am to 5pm, and wear a red polo shirt with the Adventure Science Center logo on the left breast.

Bound'ry is a bar a couple blocks away from the Vanderbilt campus. I am a food runner, which means I stay in the kitchen until we get an order (or five or six) and then take the food the chefs have prepared, and deliver it to the correct table. This involves being able to balance several plates on a tray (or sometimes my forearms), and memorizing all one hundred of the non-sequential table numbers in the dining area. For this job, I usually work from 6pm to 10:30pm (unless I am closing, in which case it is much later) and wear a black collared shirt with black slacks.

I keep meaning to take photographs of either of these places, but never seem to get around to it. If I ever do, I'll post them here. Working two jobs leaves me little time for much else, so the infrequent blog posts will probably decrease further at least until school starts back.

The decline of Nashville's mass transit.

As a Nashvillian who relies on the Metro Transit Authority to get to and from my jobs, I feel some responsibilty to preserve this important service in my city. Yesterday I attended a meeting led by a representative of the MTA, explaing to the public that city budget cuts leave it short about 2.9 million dollars. To get around this the MTA is considering several options:

Eliminating Service on the weekends.
Eliminating Service at night.
Eliminate about a third of the routes.

I ride the night bus home on weeknights. I ride the bus on Saturdays and Sundays as well. It is PACKED. If these bus routes are cut, that means all those people will be unable to get to and from work.

This budget cut comes at a time when more people are relying on public transportation than ever. From 2004 to 2006, the number of people who used Nashville's MTA increased by about 250,000 people. From 2006 to 2008, the MTA gained 1,500,000 new riders. That brings current ridership up to 8.5 million people.

Most cities have a tax that funds their MTA, giving it a steady source of income. Nashville does not. Only about half of the MTA's income comes from the city, and only twelve percent is from is from the state. These numbers are far lower than the national norm for busses.

Most of the city council members head wealthy families and the MTA does not appear to directly concern them. About 80% of the people that ride the bus come from low income families. When the budget was being drawn up, most of the concern went to

a) Education
b) Police protection
c) Fire protection

Most of the people affected by this change ARE NOT EVEN AWARE OF IT.

If you live in Nashville, please come to the Public Hearing on June 3 at 6:30pm at City Hall. Your very presence will weigh on the minds of those in authority.