The Office: Barnes & Noble Review
I finally got out today to test out some places for my new “office”. Today I went to the Barnes & Noble (150 East 86th Street bn Lexington and Third Avenues). When I was studying for the bar exam, I occasionally went to the Barnes & Noble in Lincoln Center (1972 Broadway). It was enormous and expansive, but there was little pressure to buy snacks to sit in the cafe, and there was a ton of table space. Since I took the Bar in July 2006, I have been back to the cafe to sit and read the occasional book, and for one (very bad) date.
Here’s the info:
Name: Barnes & Noble
Location: Various. I went to the one on East 86th Street between Lexington and Third
Overall Score (out of 10): 5.5
Cost of Food: $4.35 for grande iced coffee and small red velvet cupcake
Pros:
- “Free” Reading material (you can read the books and magazines at the cafe without purchasing them)
- Plenty of seating
- Lack of pressure to purchase coffee or snacks
Cons:
- No Wi-Fi
- No Electrical Outlets
- Loud
- Lack of ability to leave personal belongings to go to the bathroom or to get additional snacks
- Tons of tweens, crazy people, and other such asshats
Verdict: Not recommended. I have to say that I do love the new Barnes & Noble. Its huge, has tons of book selections, and is very clean and modern looking. The cafe is a fine place to stop for a drink with friends, which is probably its overarching purpose, but it is not a place to park yourself all day. There’s no free wi-fi, outlets to plug in your laptop computer, or cell phone service in the cafe, which makes it difficult to stay connected. Moreover, I had to endure the schizophrenic ramblings of a crazy homeless guy, and a conversation between two tweens about orgies (I hope they weren’t talking from first hand experience). On the positive side, there is something to be said about the fact that even though I didn’t have wi-fi, I was able to research the writing style of the articles in Bicycling magazine and look up a map of Western Europe.
Corporate War of the Week: Staples
Here’s really a two-fer for today. This is a rant of the day combined with what is to be my new weekly corporate war of the week series. When my mother was between jobs for three months when I was in High School, aside from making the best cheddar broccoli baked potatoes after track practice every day, she also periodically waged wars with corporate America. Call it being a social worker and working for justice for all, or just being bored, I don’t know. But, I’ve decided to follow in her footsteps.
Since I’ve been unemployed, I’ve had to spend a decent amount of time at Staples getting supplies I normally would have just used at the office (ex: I haven’t had a functioning printer cartridge since 2006). As you may or may not now, Staples’ slogan is “That was Easy”, suggesting that going to Staples is the easiest thing in the world. Just pop in, pop in, just like pushing that giant red button they have all over their ad campaigns. Well I am here to tell you that going to Staples (particularly the location on 51st Street and Lexington Avenue) is about as easy as a Carmelite nun.
So Staples, you are the recipient of my first corporate call-out of the week. I’ve pasted it below, and it speaks for itself. I sent this today, old school style via snail mail. If I get a reply I will post it, cross my heart!
Rant of the day: Post traumatic stress disorder and the divas at the Salvation Army
I think I have some sort of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from working at a law firm for the past three years, because despite the fact that I no longer have a blackberry, I could swear I hear something buzzing, beckoning me to stop what I’m doing in order to attend to some client’s needs. I hope this stops soon because it is ruining what is otherwise promising to be a great time.
In other news… for some reason I’m busier being unemployed for the last few days than I was when I was employed. Well — that’s not exactly true. I am busier being unemployed for the last few days than when I was employed over the last two months. And my days are actually spent getting my life in order.
My latest project is cleaning my tiny four room apartment which seems to have eaten half of the garbage dumps of Staten Island. This is the before shot of my living room, which sadly resembles (but now that I look at it again, looks worse than) the art installation done by the Roger Smith Galleries in midtown which is supposed to be a replica of an apartment after Hurricane Katrina:
The disaster zone.
Listen Mom. I don’t want to hear it. I spent the last three years living in my office space (as evidenced by the five boxes, yes FIVE boxes of stuff shipped to my house on Friday afternoon). I apparently didn’t have time to even supervise my cleaning lady. Who, by the way, is fired.
Anyway. I couldn’t stand it anymore. I’m doing a fullscale cleaning of the place. And as my mother’s daughter, everything that hasn’t been used in 6 months must go immediately. I’m surprised I haven’t mixed together bleach and ammonia like my mother did on Mother’s Day in 1996, thus sending myself to the hospital.
That leads me to my rant of the day. So obviously since I have been cleaning house (literally) I already have about six black garbage bags of just sheets and shoes to give away, and a color T.V. (just please don’t ask). So obviously I do the right thing and call the Salvation Army. Well, well, well. The DIVAS over there tell me that it will be at least June 26th until they can come and get the donations, and to add insult to injury, they won’t pick up anything that is on the fourth floor or higher. Since I live on the fourth floor of a walk-up, they tell me that I can either bring the items to the Salvation Army service center myself, or I can bring the items down to them on the third floor. They won’t even make the exception to walk the extra floor. Um, what?! Is this not a prime example of looking a gift horse in the mouth?! I have premium crap I want to give you and you’re just like, yeah, no, thorry.
Well, well, well, DIVAS. You missed out on some pretty sweet BCBG pumps, and a pretty awesome combination TV/VCR from 1999, let me just tell you. If anyone is looking for them they will be over at the Goodwill on the UES.
Check for updates on my apartment progress. Also, tomorrow I will be posting my first free/cheap/reasonably inexpensive recommendation! Stay tuned.
