To those of you reading this on your commute, or during your lunch break, or sneaking a peek during your 3 o’clock meeting, don’t worry, this will be a short one today.  Single Girl had a pretty quiet week this past week and in contrast, Renee has a busy one.  See how nicely life makes that work for me?

Let’s refresh our memories (it has been over a week since I last posted) about where the drop was, at Andrew and Frank’s Deli on 23rd Ave.  Most of you know that I live on the other side of the highway.  I almost missed dropping them off on Thursday because I was putting off the mile and a half walk that I knew I had to carve out at least an hour to do.  But I made it up there just before closing and left them with Benny.

As I mentioned before it’s been a pretty quiet week, but I did have some bright spots.  One of them being a meeting/chat session with some students from Parsons School of Design.

I may have mentioned this before, we met a while back.  Their class had assigned them a neighborhood (Astoria) and they were to do do their research then each week present something.  Through their research, they heard about me and we met to talk Single Girl Cookies and also the neighborhood.  It went over pretty well and their new focus is on a service of the neighborhood, and they chose Single Girl!  There are now new objectives to their project such as showing growth and making an impact on the economy of the neighborhood.  We had a great brainstorming session, and they’ve got ideas I’d never have come up with.  I’m looking forward to meeting with them again, they are such lovely and smart individuals!

I also met with the folks at Guideposts Magazine this week to talk about Single Girl Cookies.  And yes, this was Single Girl’s first official subway ride into Manhattan!

I had written a small piece for them a few years back and contacted them again thinking they might be interested in learning about SGC.  Turns out they were,  so I brought them some cookies and we had a nice chat about what I’m  hoping to accomplish with this.  It may be right for one or two sections of their publication, so I may be having some great news in the future!

Because Andrew & Frank’s is so far away, I had been putting off picking up my plate until yesterday.  I figured the gorgeous day deserved a bike ride, which made the journey quicker and definitely more enjoyable.  Going at prime lunchtime was a different experience than my last, I’ll tell you that much.  This was like stepping onto a 1980’s film set for the neighborhood cop lunch scene, complete with light wash jeans, moustaches, distinct accents, and being called “sweetheart”.  As a matter of fact, when I was telling my roommate about it later, she got super freaked out by my accent impression, both because it was so good, and because she didn’t want to know why it was so good.  I’m an actor, whaddya want?

I retrieved my place from Benny then asked him where he thought I should go next week.  He deferred to the gentleman taking a catering order from a customer, whose name is Johnny.  I waited while he finished up with that, then he started taking lunch orders from these other gentlemen that had come in.  The handcuffs and walkies gave away they they were law enforcement, and listening to their banter was priceless.  It was almost like I was watching this through the glass, or like I wasn’t there.  Turns out this isn’t far from the truth, because I’m pretty sure Johnny didn’t even register that I had been standing there for 5 minutes until he asked me if I had been helped and “what can I do for you, sweetheart?  You have my undivided attention now.”  I told him I had brought in the plate of cookies last week and – this is where he interrupted me and said yeah, his brother told him all about it.  I said, great!  Where should I go next week?  He looked a little confused and said, what do you mean?  Ha, I guess you don’t know after all!   (can you tell he’s not scoring big with me?) I told him the initiative of the project while I still had his undivided attention, and asked him again who he thought deserved the next round of cookies.  A voice from the peanut gallery shouted out “The ____Precinct in the Bronx!  I’ll drive you there!”  There was a collective, “Yeah/good idea, haha!”  to which my brain said, “Aw, HELL no!” but I cheerfully said, “Nope!  Gotta keep it in the neighborhood!” *pastes big smile on face*

Johnny said then suggested the 114th Precinct, and before I agreed to anything made sure it was, in fact, in Astoria.  He asked me what I thought of that and I kept telling him, I truly don’t care, it’s not my choice.  I will go wherever the project sends me.  So, he said to go there, and to “Make sure you tell’em Johnny at Andrew and Franks sent you”  Yep, I do that already, got it pal 🙂

And there you have it.  Thursday’s recipients of Single Girl Cookies will be the ladies and gents of the hardworking police force over at the 114th on Astoria Blvd.  As a community service, they are certainly ones that deserve a “thank you” and don’t often get it unless there’s something big or major happening.  And I suppose it can’t hurt to have one or two policemen/women on your side 😉

Copyright 2013, Renee Heitmann