New York, New York!

Friday, August 5, 2011

My flight arrived in at 5:30 this morning. I hadn’t slept much on the plane, but felt surprisingly well, despite the lack of sleep. I found my way easily to the baggage claim and waited for my two ginormous suitcases, while sweating profusely. I am so not used to the humidity. My green suitcase came off first and I was able to grab it ok. I prepped myself for my overweight, 69 lbs, blue suitcase. It almost dragged me along the conveyer belt, but I persevered and heaved it off in time to save my pride. I am not quite sure how I managed to transport both suitcases, the massive duffle bag and my laptop bag out to the curb and the taxi queue, but I did it. I wasn’t about to spend $5 on a freaking trolley! No, sir! It was totally worth careening into the nice man in charge of getting me a taxi, just to save those $5. The taxi-getter (Yes, not all the words in here are real. It’s a hard time, ok?) asked, “What do you have in here? Bricks?” I told him that no, I was in fact carrying my entire life in that suitcase. I must have looked desperate because he just laughed nervously and handed me my taxi ticket. My taxi had arrived by then, so I warned the driver about my heavy suitcase, then got in the taxi. My driver was really nice. He is starting graduate school for criminal justice this fall at some school in the city. We’re best friends now. Hehe. By the end of the ride we’d become invested in each other’s lives. He was getting concerned about where I was going to live, and I was getting worried about him working so much while going to school. Bless our hearts. I needed sleep.

I got to Anouska and Adam’s at 7 (fast ride because it was so early), and they helped me in with all my crap. I ate breakfast, chatted with Nousk, then took a nap around 8:30. I woke up around 11 and Nousk and I ate lunch. I started filling out the forms I needed to hand in at my job interview that day, but had to hurry and get dressed before I could finish them. Nousk and I left the apartment at about 2pm, stopped by Columbia where Adam was working in the lab. Adam had was awesome and had printed off 10 copies of my resume. He is an amazing guy. When Anouska and I got to the subway station at 125^th, we were lucky enough to catch an express train downtown. I still needed to finish filling out my papers, which I did on the subway. It was a feat in and of itself. I’m sure my handwriting was illegible, but I didn’t care. We got off at 34^th Street, then hoofed it five blocks up and two over to Park Ave. I was literally running in heels through the streets of Manhattan. I allowed myself a few seconds to think of Adrienne and Sex and the City, then came back to my sweaty, sweaty reality. We made it into the lobby by 2:45. I proceeded to use Anouska’s back as a desk for the rest of my forms, while she looked up phone numbers for my references in my phone. I seriously could not have done any of it without Anouska. At 2:55 I made it breathlessly to the fourth floor and was called into my interview. The interview went well, despite my sweatiness and tendency towards nervous laughter.

After the interview, I met up with Anouska at the Starbucks a couple blocks over. We sat in there and chatted for an hour or so, then started the trek home. When we got home we went with Adam to Fairway, which is a massive grocery store that is partially outside and inside. It’s cool. There is a whole refridgerated section that is freezing to go into so they have huge coats you can put on to walk through it. Nousk and I just ran through it, shivering and whining every so often. Very mature. We had amazing steak for dinner that Adam cooked perfectly. It has been a great first day.

August 6 – 12, 2011

So I have been terrible and not kept track of every day’s events. Here’s a brief overview of what I’ve done each day:

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Slept in till noon. Went to Max Café with Anouska and Adam, which is an awesome little hang out place for them to work on stuff. Saw Captain America after running several blocks from one theatre to the next. In the rain. Really enjoyed the movie. And the run. Got some frozen yogurt at Pink Berry on the way home. Split pomegranate yogurt and salted caramel yogurt. At them on the steps of one of the buildings at Columbia. It was a nice night.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Went for a run to Central Park to see Adam’s friend Hendrick in the New York City Triathalon. I am out of shape. Met up with Hendrick and his friends and family after and had an amazing picnic of burritos and tacos while waiting for the awards ceremony. Got talking with an interesting woman who is Hendrick’s bookkeeper and is also a playwright. I don’t remember her name, but one of her plays just finished at an off-Broadway theatre. We also chatted with a high-end magician and his wife. Yep, a magician. Apparently he does parties with Mick Jagger and other big names that he conveniently mentioned to us. He was nice, but definitely different. Hendrick ended up taking first in his age group and second overall! It was amazing. We all freaked out. He was in shock. After we packed up everything, Adam, Nousk, and I started our long trek back home. We stopped and played in a fountain on the way, which was delightful. By the time we got home, we had run/walked about 8 miles. Woot!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Got a call that I got the job at mediabistro.com! Took the subway downtown for Nousk to lodge a complaint against her former employers at the EEOC. We also went to get my NYU ID card and look through the bookstore. There is no real set campus for NYU. Their tagline is that “The city is our campus,” which is cool in theory, but irritating when trying to get things done. Urgh. Ate some delicious pizza then headed home.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Started my new job. Called Jen on my way to the subway. Found my way downtown all by myself. I was pathetically proud of myself. I only had to call Anouska once to verify that I was walking in the correct direction. I have a hard time with directions when I’m not surrounded by mountains for references. In my haste I dropped my phone, which promptly shattered on the sidewalk. I grabbed up the pieces and kept walking. A block and a half later I realized I didn’t have the battery. I ran back to where I had dropped it, and lo and behold, the battery was still there on the sidewalk. Rough morning. I called Dan before going into work, so he could give me a pep-talk.

My boss, Heather, is nice. Met the others on the ‘events team’. I was shown my desk and told to look through the last gal’s emails to get familiar with it all. I helped one of the other ladies, Mary, make nametags for cocktail parties in Portland and LA. Basically what my job will be is helping hosts organize cocktail parties in NYC and 20 different cities around the world. I’ll be required to attend the first hour of at least one NYC cocktail party a week, until school starts. My first one is Wednesday, August 17. Geh! I worked from 10am-6pm. I had been too nervous to eat more than a banana for breakfast, then was too nervous to eat lunch. On my way home, I wasn’t able to get on the first train because it was so packed full of people. Seriously, nobody even got on or off. When the next train came, I was desperate. I was dripping with sweat and starving. The doors to the train opened and it was packed, but I shoved my way on anyway. Once the doors closed behind me, I was able to lean back against them. I’ve never been so close to strangers in my life. The further uptown the train went, the more the train thinned out. At the next stop, a large man squeezed his way on and told me his life story. We’re now best friends. His name is Vick, he is from New Jersey, Florida originally, he works at the Olive Garden in Times Square, and he and his ‘girl’ are going to move to San Francisco sometime soon. He has never been on a roadtrip or camping. He was loud, sweaty, and hilarious. At one point he accidently elbowed some guy in the head and said, “I’m sorry, sir. I’m sweaty and fat.” No one else was talking on the train, so it was pretty great. Everyone was listening to our conversation. I’m going to enjoy the subway.

Wednesday – Saturday, August 10-13, 2011

Nothing too specific to report. Don’t have to work again till Monday, August 15, because Heather is out of town. Lots of job and apartment searching. Lots of silent anxiety attacks about getting an apartment, which seems to be impossible in NYC. Lots of delicious food. Lots of staying up till 2am with Adam and Nousk watching episodes of Monarch of the Glen on Netflix.