Bloc 11 & Diesel Cafe

Jen and I met over breakfast at The Neighborhood.  I could hear the music and other people’s conversations, making the audio from our interview, difficult to transcribe.  But, what I hear over the Beatles, crying babies, and clanking plates, is her laugh.  She is laughing, pretty much the entire time.  Or smiling.  And it is infectious.  People have told me my whole life to smile more.  I guess I just needed to hang out with Jen more.

What is Your Full Name?
Jennifer Rosemary Signor.  All of us are JRS in my family, except for the oldest and the youngest.  There’s 7 of us.

Siblings?
Yeah.

Do you have any nicknames?
Janice, or Jen S…. Siggy, Gorgeous, but sometimes, Talented too.  That’s what people usually call me.

Where are you from?
California.  The Mojave Desert.  It’s like an hour away from Death Valley.

What brought you to Boston?
Uh, my dad retired from the airforce and both of my parents’ family is out here. You can think about totally the wrong thing and not want to eat this.  Like if you thought about a handicapped person eating this….Really, thought about it….I really like these little cups too.  You know what I mean?

How long have you worked at Bloc?
Ugh, why do you ask questions to which you already know the answer? Um, a year and…how long’s Bloc been open?

14 months.
14 months.  14 months.  A toddler.

Why did you choose Bloc?
Well, I was hired for Diesel, for both and Bloc was closer.  And I thought it was gonna be slower and I didn’t feel like working so much, like Diesel’s so busy.  I’m just kidding.

What was your most memorable Bloc moment?
Oh, when my car got towed.  ‘Member, and that Ratatat song was playing and you guys all came running and the thing.  So, Patrick, Laura G., myself, and Rob were all sitting in the car while you shoveled it out?  You remember that?  Every time I hear it, I think of that, because I had it (Tropicana from the Ratatat Classics album) playing in my car when you all dropped me off, at the tow, like I had the windows open while I  was shoveling it, and then all of a sudden you guys were all running over to help me brush it off.   And that song was playing and it was so perfect.

Favorite coffee drink?
Hot chocolate.  With a little vanilla.  That’s my favorite, I have like 3 a day.  I have to have the skim milk ones.  I make it with skim milk recently.  Because I’m a fatty.  Every time I work, I make 1, I make 3.  You know what I mean?  And it’s startin’ to show.  I saw it in that picture, you took that picture.

Favorite Animal?
I like all the animals.  I always dream about them.  Last night I had a dream about baby polar bears. There’s one named Knut if you You Tube it.  He’s like a famous baby polar bear.  Anyway, I really like all the animals.  I don’t like snakes.  It’s like what animals, don’t I like?

Favorite non-coffee drink?
Hot chocolate.  Oh, no, chocolate milk, just say chocolate milk, with the ice.

Favorite cocktail?
Mmmmm.    I like Red Stripe.

Favorite activity.
Working.  I love to work.

Favorite movie.
Oh, I have a lot of favorite movies.  I like the movie, The Piano, and also Pump Up the Volume with Christian Slater, and also Take the Money and Run, yup.

Favorite Book?
Yes, I do.  Without Feathers.  It’s Woody Allen.  I got it for Christmas twice.  My mom got it for me and it’s really funny.  It’s not really about anything.  It just has a whole bunch of funny things in it.  And, um it says you”ll laugh out loud on a train, and I did.  Reading it on the train, on the back it says you will, and I did.  And also, what else?  Harry Potter.  Don’t put that on there, please don’t, all right, you can.  Just to make my brother happy, in honor of him.  And  also.  What else.  I like reading,  you can just say that I like to read.

Music that you are enjoying right now
Right now?  Right now??? Ohhh.  What am I listening to right now?  Crystal Castles? And Panda Bear.

Can you tell me a funny story?
Recent or old?  I have a couple of older ones.  OK, when I was 14 years old….Oh, does it have to be about me?  Let’s talk about me….Oh. That’s so awful.  Lately, I’ve become so self-absorbed lately.  It’s so tactless.  If I heard someone say that, I would be really irritated.  I had this really bad headache one day and it was like 6 o’clock at night and my mom gave me like 3 Tylenol pm because I had this really bad headache and I just wanted to sleep.  So, I went to sleep and then around midnight, um, like my brother just came home from work, he had been working late, and I get out of my bed and I walk past him, and he’s like, “Hey, how’s it going?”  And I walk right past him and I go up to the fridge and I pull out the drawer, pull my pants down and pee in it.  Because I was sleep walking.  And I pee’d in the fridge.

What’s your favorite place to be?
To be?  To be?? Well, you know like when you go to the edge of the water, that’s really cheesy, but you know at the end, that’s where like the map starts.  It’s where you can say where you are exactly on the map.  Because you’re at the edge of the world.  Because it is, even thought the earth’s not flat.  Where the water comes, that’s really the edge, right?

Also, in the morning, I love to be in bed.

What is your favorite thing to wear to work?
My apron, just kidding.  Socks.  And that’s my ideal outfit.  Socks and an apron, and a little bit of my necklaces….maybe one earring?  And a watch.  That’s my favorite thing to wear at work, but I don’t have one right now.  Because it broke.

How do you get to work?
I used to drive, but now I live 2 feet from work.  How far away is it?  Like 100?  I still drive sometimes, but um, definitely it’s hard to find parking, but I mean.  I walk.

Best Advice you Ever Got.
Um.  Friends don’t count change, right? No, um.  My mom always had this like Family Circus thing on the door.  You know Family Circus?  It’s really cheesy, but the mom, the kid, Billy is running outside and the mom’s standing at the door and my mom would always tape that to the door every time we leave.  Very much by like the golden rule.  That’s not advice, though….

To help me transcribe this interview, I have purchased one of Claire's favorite snacks, Snyder's Hot Buffalo Wing flavored pretzel bits.  They are….amazing. 

What is Your Full Name?
Claire Lillian Pittari.

Do you have any nicknames?
Yeah, uh huh, yeah I do.  Uh, I dunno, um…..Tucky has taken to calling me Sticks or Sticky, but it’s not sticking, so to speak….Claire Bear, Pit Stains, that’s a good one. I don’t really listen to people when they’re talking to me…..

Where are you from? 
Connecticut. Ahhh, you wanna a town name?  Bethlehem….birth place of our savior. 

What brought you to Boston?
I was gonna try to go to school.  And then one thing led to another, and here I am….

Where do you go to school?
I can technically still answer this.  I am a student at the School of Museum of Fine Arts.  For like another 5 minutes. 

How long have you worked at Diesel?
Ahhh, like 6 months….??

Why did you choose Diesel?
I thought it might get me laid, I didn’t have any money….Did I not write that on the application?

What was your most memorable Diesel moment?
We leave this one and come back, maybe 3 times…
Uh….I do like it here…Um…Oh wait, I do like that it’s given me the opportunity to like, I gave up music snobbery like rock snobbery and that kind of stuff, it’s boring, it’s funner to not be a music snob you know, to like have moved past that, so I need something else. To be a snob about.  So, I like that I get to be a coffee snob…

That’s appealing in a person…
Uh, yeah no, something, something that you can feel like you are better than somebody.

That’s always, really attractive…
I know, especially when you throw it out on dates.  No, I really like everybody here….All right, most memorable moment, a memorable moment, ahhhh….

Finally, she starts to tell me.  A story from this past year’s Halloween.
Yeah, I mean, it’s no Bones….So, Kim and I.  So, Kim and I, Kim and I came….Kim and I had been up all night trying to make costumes for Halloween, and so we get this call.  Bones calls her in the morning, I had stayed there, So, Kim was like, answer the phone.  It was a really weird conversation to be on the other side of…Bones wanted her to bring mascara to work….And we were thinking that, we were mostly hoping that Bones was after the black in the mascara to paint, like paste….I really hope that Bones doesn’t put it in her moustache….Because that would be like so disgusting.  Yeah well, You have to tell her when you hand it to her that she’s not allowed to comb it through her stache, cuz’ that’s like crazy…..So, I just ended up hanging out at Diesel for a little while and at one point, Bnes calls her into the back and so you know like, I sneak back there and not only was Bones’ plan to dye her moustache with the mascara all along, but she had Kim do it for her. 

You really like moustaches, huh?
I fucking love moustachios!!!!  Like right now, I couldn’t possibly be more envious of Joe because he gets to parade around with his ‘stache all day long….

What is your favorite food?
Yeah, I mean, ah.  I think my favorite base food is like spaghetti which is like boring but things that are more interesting go with those things.  And rice.  Spaghetti and rice.  Crammed inside a baked potato.

Favorite coffee? 
Yeah, I liked the House Original….I really like the Ethiopia too.

Favorite coffee drink?
Ah, coffee.  And I like espresso as well, but I don’t like fancy drinks that much….

How do you take your coffee?
Straight up, like my women.

Favorite café?
Yeah.  Yeah I do.  I guess I like it here.

Favorite Animal?
Yeah!  I really like, um, possums, raccoons, um, cats, I like woodland things.

Person you would most like to meet.
Pause…..Ahhh, I don’t care about anybody, I guess…..I am content not having to meet anyone.

Favorite cocktail/mocktail?
Whiskey or orange soda.  I like gin and tonics, they make me feel old.  Smell like Grandma….

Favorite activity.
Um…No, just…Yeah I like dancing.  Yeah.  I do like that. 

Favorite movie.
Home Alone. 

Do you identify with McCauley Culkin?
Ah yeah, uh, I both identify with and am desperately in love with….

Favorite Book.
Um…I really like um…Uh, I don’t know how to read, you know that.  You always find a way to bring it up. 

Let’s pretend you could read, what would be your favorite book?
I guess I really like Breakfast with Champions.  I like the pictures that Kurt Vonnegut drew.  I think that’s the answer I would have given in high school. 

What were you studying in school?
Animation, mostly.  We didn’t have to declare, but I accidentally discovered that I liked it.  Sculpture.  And animation, mixed media….martial arts….

Music that you are enjoying right now?
I can kind of hear the music upstairs and Tucker’s voice is nice….Well.  Guided by Voices is always a good one….

Funny story?
Change names here.  Um…You know, involving Diesel Folk???  I think a lot of funny things happen.  I burn Kim a lot.  I think we hrt each other a lot on the floor here.  That’s usually funny, I think that’s really funny…Yeah, because, I’ll pour an entire shot of espresso on Kim’s hand and she’ll like drop the Americano water on my crotch and everyone around feels better.  It’s a morale booster…..Ok, um…

What is your favorite thing to wear to work?
My pink G-string.  Jeans and a T-shirt.  My lion t-shirt, but it’s white.  And where my stomach kind of sticks out, it gets…..she rubs her tummy to indicate….

Favorite Designer?
She looks at me with mild disdain. 
No I don’t.  Ummm.  The guy on ProjectRunway, made me laugh a lot.  No, I don’t have a favorite, no, we’re gonna go with Levi.  That’s a classic standby.

Favorite Hat Style
Fitted, flat rimmed, god, I wish that were my favorite.  I just have a lot of them.  I don’t really wear them, but I have
worn flat rimmed, with the sticker on ’em to keep ‘em fresh.

How Do you Get to work?
Practice.  I just purchased a bicycle and I like to ride it, but it’s cold now, so the bus, or my car, I don’t really walk anymore….

Best Advice you Ever Got.
My most recent advice.  That I ever got.  Bones told me no sleep overs until after 3 months.  Bones gave me a series of advice that was too little too late……That’s the problem, I so rarely listen to people….

Only child?  Middle child?
No, Youngest… Oh, now, you got me like all figured out now??

Celebrity Crush:
Aside from McCauley Culkin….We flip through a couple of my magazines.
Zooey Deschanel

Food Aversions
Mmmmhmmmm.  I do, yeah!  But the thing is, I have like ethical food aversions and then actual food aversions.  I’m not crazy about meat in general, the idea of it, but I eat it anyways.  I mean, apathy won out a little bit…but um, I feel really guilty.  I have an aversion to the guilt I feel when I consume animals, but, I don’t like raisins and I don’t like…I pretty much eat anything.

Favorite Dance move:
You know what I have an aversion to?  I have an aversion to…certain foods, that like, dishes that put, try to make themselves more fancy by putting fruit in them.  Like, cranberries and raisins….that was more of a complaint, sorry…
Favorite dance move?
Wait, what’s a salmon’s favorite dance move?  Poppin Lox.  Pop, Lock and Drop it? 

I admit that I don’t know what Pop Lock and Drop It is….
Oh God, Where is Tucker???? You know what I hate????  I hate explaining jokes to people….

Favorite Technology?
Oh my god, my favorite science????  My favorite science….

Um, I said technology.
I’m taking this bus and driving it straight off a cliff.  Dude computer science…is so smart.  Those little smart boxes that you can get your internet on.  Carry around with you. 

Like the iphone? 
Well, yeah, like NO, like all of them. I don’t have one…..
I like video games that’s a good technology.  For me.  That’s me.

Favorite YouTube Video?
I like any video that shows people falling down, in a funny way.  Have you ever seen….Charlotte, was it Charlotte?  It’s a really long video and she’s singing and she’s totally making up this song as she goes….She’s totally making up this song and puts on these ugly-ass shoes and she gets up on this table and, she’s a big girl, and falls over and lies on the ground for a long time….Yeah, pretty much not like America’s Funniest Home video, kind of way….Babies laughing….Oh angry cats, really angry cats that are like screaming and…

Favorite Color?
Yellow!