My Field Trip to Bloomberg

          On Monday I had the chance to go to the Bloomberg L.P. building.  Bloomberg is probably the largest financial news outlet in the country, so I guess it's kind of a big deal.  It's the company former Mayor Bloomberg of New York started back in the 80's.  Of course, I was there for a reason.  It was a field trip for my public finance class.  Our professor, who isn't actually a professor, he's just visiting this semester and teaching this one class because he's an expert, used to work there, so he got us in.  So for two hours we sat in a conference room and had a discussion about bonds and the market with two guys who work there, which was marginally interesting.  My favorite part of the trip, though, was walking through the building on the way to that conference room.
          We started out in the lobby, which was pretty standard, besides some weird wooden sculptures along one wall that looked like what I imagine pterodactyl nests wood look like (I don't understand art).  The lady at the desk took our picture and we got a little visitors badge to hang around our necks.  We walked past the security guards, who scanned our badges, and this is where things started to get awesome.  Past the guard station we came to an elevator bank that was dark except for some purple light coming from behind white wall panels that would fade out as others lit up.  We got into an elevator and went up to the 6th floor.  We exited into another purple elevator bank and had to walk to the other side of the building to catch an elevator down to LL2.  As we walked, I saw some amazing things.  First of all, the walls are all white marble.  I know this because I felt them, like a weirdo.  We walked past a help desk, which let me to believe that the building is so big that even people who work there get lost.  Past the help desk, the hallway curved around and opened up into a huge commons space, with orange and black chairs and tables scattered across the white floor.  There were little kiosks everywhere with organic potato chips, Oreos, oatmeal, juice, soda, and just about any other snack food you could think of.  Oh, and all that stuff was free if you worked there.  As the hall curved around more, it narrowed again and we walked past a fish tank wall, and I thought, "of course there's a fish tank wall."  As we walked a little farther, we walked past two glass walled conference rooms with white letters on the outside that read "Boston" and "Philadelphia", raised up and set back a little from the wide hallway.  On the landing of the steps that let to those conference rooms, there was a coy pond.  Yes, a coy pond.  A coy pond in the building. With real coy. I could see them through the glass walls that extended about a foot above the ground, just swimmin' around in there.  Thats where my mind exploded.  We walked into another elevator bank, went down to LL2, got some free soda, and sat in a conference room with white tables and grey walls.  The whole place looked like it was from the future.  Ultra modern, with screens everywhere displaying charts and stock exchange data.  It was quite an experience.
          Now, don't get me wrong, I would never want to work there.  I think working in finance would be terribly boring.  But the building was super cool.  And it added some descriptions to my new definition of "rich" that has been forming since we moved to New York.
          "Rich" is having a coy pond in your building.
         

Sunday, Sunday

          What's this?  Two blogs in one week?  Yes, yes this is me making an effort to take this more seriously.  I have a lot of trouble writing these because, as I said when I first started this, it's hard for me to come up with things to write about that people will actually want to read.  Living here, while it's not becoming mundane, now seems less extraordinary.  The city is still awe inspiring, and I see buildings or streets or scenes every day that deserve more than just a fleeting glance.  But now I live here.  I have daily and weekly activities, and most of the time I might as well be living anywhere else; my thoughts and actions, revolving around school or work or whatever else, would be mostly the same.
          So, I thought I'd just write about my day and see how that goes.  I'm afraid it will be terribly boring, but I'm going to do it anyways.  Today is Sunday.  Ok, that's a good start.  Sunday for us means church, even though for the past month or so Kyha has had to work 10-6 on Sundays, so, sadly, no church for her.  We've been going to Hillsong, which we like.  The music is great, of course, and so is the preaching.  However, I take Sundays off of bike riding, so I have to leave our apartment around 8:15ish to catch the 2 or 3 train downtown to Time Square station, where I transfer to the N, Q, or R train to Union Square in order to get in line at Hillsong by 9:00 so I can get a good seat at the 10:00 service (yes, there is a line for this church, which is the worst part).  Every Sunday after church, in an effort to make my life more like all of the New York based movies and TV shows I have ever seen, walk two blocks to a little diner called Joe Junior.  It is wonderful.  Wood paneling on the walls, a TV on mute hung in the corner, a conspicuous bag of garlic nailed to the wall above the old metal cash register.  Every week I sit at the bar and order the same thing, pancakes with two eggs over easy, and no thanks, I'll just have water to drink.  And every week I go in there with the naive hope that today will be the day the waiter makes my life complete and says "Goodmorning.  Just the usual today?"  But, instead, I politely decline a menu and say I'll have pancakes with two eggs over easy.  Maybe next week will be the week.
          I'm usually done eating around noon, which means I have two hours until I have to be at work.  It's about a half an hour walk across town, but I fill the time with some exploring.  I'll duck into antique shops or book stores, sit in a park and people watch, or just walk around.  Today I went to the Stumptown Coffee on 29th street, since Kyha is such a big fan of theirs.  It's attached to a fancy hotel, and their seating area is the hotel lobby.  So after the hipsters behind the bar kindly made a tea for me, because I'm boring, I went into the lobby to read for an hour.  Now, this is not your typical hotel lobby.  It's poorly lit, I suppose for effect, with dark couches and armchairs placed close together in such a way which assumes that the strangers sitting in them will want to talk to each other, when actually nobody wants to talk to anybody.  It is New York, after all.
          After that I walked to work, where I did work things, and then I rode the Subway home and had dinner with my lovely wife.  Now I'm sitting on my fire escape writing this because the weather is perfect.  That was my Sunday folks.  I'm going to go to sleep now.

The Internets

          For the first time ever, I am writing this blog from our apartment!  Yes, we finally signed up for internet service.  Yes, we've been going without the internet for the past two and a half months.  We also don't have a TV.  Or a microwave.  Or cars.  And I guess thats not that much to live without.  A lot of people live with a lot less.  I thought I wouldn't miss TV, but it's been hard sitting around not knowing who the mother is on How I Met Your Mother, or what's going on on The Walking Dead, or what happened in the apparently amazing final season of Breaking Bad.

          As far as living without a microwave, that's been less hard.  I don't even think about it anymore.  If I need to heat up some leftovers, I just use a stove and a pan, like they did in the olden days.  We also don't have anything at all in our freezer ever, so no microwave burritos to warm up.  We wouldn't really have any room for a microwave on our counters anyways.  Living without a car has been something I've gotten used to sort of automatically.  It's pretty easy in New York, with the subways and buses.  And a lot of other people feel the same way only a quarter of the people who live in Manhattan own a car.  And even if I did have a car, I wouldn't want to use it with all the traffic and difficulties finding a parking spot.  I still think biking is the best way to get around, even though it's freezing outside now.  I actually made it home from work on my bike in half an hour on Sunday, which is a few minutes faster than it would have taken me on the subway, but that's only because it's like a half mile walk from my work to the nearest subway station.  I do miss driving sometimes.  I think about driving to Spokane or Pullman, with some gummy worms and an iced tea from the gas station and the music on, and man that sounds fun.  

          In other news, there is only like 5 weeks left in the semester, so I'm going to be writing a lot of papers.  Kyha got a raise at work, and now has a set of keys to be responsible for opening and closing!

          Ok, that's it for now.  If you need me, I'll be catching up on all of the Netflix time I've been missing.

Park Avenue

          It's happening already.  I told myself I wouldn't be that person who starts up a blog and then slowly neglects it until it no longer has any relevance.  But that is what has happened over the past three weeks.  My excuses are that we had some awesome friends come visit us!  And that school mid terms happened.  It was great to have Russ and Kaitlin here.  Just to have somebody to hang out with was nice.  I'm actually doing work in school besides just reading.  I mean, there is still the same amount of reading, but now I also get to write papers.  Work is also still happening.  As far as jobs go, it's a pretty good one.  And I'm learning stuff, like that all the red wine produced in Beaujolais is always made from Gamay grapes.  But I did have to look up how to spell Beaujolais, so I suppose it's hit and miss.

          I'm trying to think of other things that are new and interesting, so I won't talk about the weather, even though it is getting colder here.  I'm going to see how far into the winter I can go before I have to hang up my bike and buy a subway pass.  One thing I do like about riding my bike is that I get to ride down Park Avenue every day to school.  More millionaires and billionaires live on Park Ave than any other street in the whole country, and it is quite a sight to see.  Doormen wearing hats and white gloves out in the street with their whistles calling cabs for their tenants.  Girls with big sunglasses and little dogs in their purses. Rolls-Royces and Maseratis, the owners of which sit in the back while their driver drives, of course.  Little boys wearing suits that are probably more expensive than all the clothes I own, probably purchased from the Armani for Kids right up the street.  Yes, there is whole Armani store just for kids.  Theres even a J. Crew Baby store over on Madison Ave, which is right next to Park Ave, in case your snot nosed kid needs a $198 cashmere blanket to throw up all over (I just looked them up, $198 dollar cashmere baby blankets actually do exist).  I mean, the amount of wealth is unreal.  I often wonder what these people do.  I suppose most of them probably work in finance, doing whatever it is that people in finance do.  

Anyways, people here are rich.  Its time for me to go to class.

Big and Small

          It's a weird thing when a place feels big and small at the same time.  The city is starting to feel smaller to me.  I have a pretty set routine.  I go the same places, work and school, at the same time every week, just like everybody else.  I ride my bike the same way most days, because I know I'll make it to where I need to go on time.  I do deliveries at work, but a lot of them are in the local neighborhood, and I go to a lot of the same houses and apartment buildings with the same doormen.  I go exploring every once in a while, but I've been to most of the neighborhoods in Manhattan, just not all of the streets.  So my routine sort of confines me to a few places, and in that sense, the city is starting to feel smaller.  I guess it's not surprising, because Manhattan is only a few square miles bigger than the city limits of Lewiston (I looked it up).  The only difference is, there are 8.2 million people here.
          I've been thinking, and since I've moved to the city I cannot remember a single time when I've been somewhere I couldn't see another person (besides our apartment and the bathroom, of course).  Every street, every subway car, every business, every floor of the library, there are people.  Even in our apartment, I can hear people yelling outside, or our neighbors shutting their door, or those idiots who ride their four wheelers up and down the street at 40 miles an hour.  Where did they even get those four wheelers?  It's an odd feeling, never feeling alone.  I think that's why people here do such weird things out in public.  No one is every truly alone, but on the street or in a subway car surrounded by people you will never see again, in a sense you are.
          I think that's the biggest difference for me so far.  Back home, sometimes in just one trip to Wal Mart I would see three or four people I knew well enough to talk to, and another three or four who's names I knew.  Here in the city, I see literally hundreds, maybe even thousands of people every single day that I will never see again in my entire life.  It's something that's difficult to describe, and I don't know if it has any sort of effect on me, but it sure is weird to think about.

Routine

          I think we are finally getting into the swing of things.  For me, school has been going steady for a few weeks now, and I'm really enjoying it.  It's quite a bit different than undergrad.  I don't have a whole lot of assignments, but I have a whole lot of reading; usually between 30 and 80 pages a week for each class.  Some of it is interesting, some of it is technical and not so interesting.  Classes are a lot of fun though.  Most are around 8 students and are about half lecture, half discussion.  Also, I joined the committee that publishes the quarterly student urban planning magazine, the Urban Review.  I'm not usually the type of person to join student groups like that, but it will probably look good on a resume.
          I've also been working regularly, every Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday.  I'm learning a lot about wine, like how to lift cases of it, how to stack four cases of it on a hand-truck, and how to take that hand-truck crosstown on the subway for a delivery.  Really, though, I am learning quite a bit about wine and winemaking and all that.  I get to taste some sort of wine probably twice a week.  And, I can buy bottles at cost!
          Kyha is still enjoying her job.  Of course, she is a super talented barista, so earning the respect of her coworkers was not a problem.  She made a latte art swan the other day, which was awesome.  Oh, and she brings home muffins and sandwiches and things for me to eat.
          Also, my bike is finally here!  My legs are tired, but it's been nice riding around the city.  I can get from place to place quickly, and it doesn't cost $2.50 every time I ride it (like the subway).  Riding in the streets hasn't been too bad so far.  There are bike lanes on the major avenues, but some drivers don't really like bikes, and they let you know with their high speeds and their horns and whatnot.  I'll let you know if I get hit or anything.
          And of course, we had our first visitors from back home!  Brooklyn and Lexi stayed with us for a few nights.  Really, they came to watch Cami perform on America's Got Talent (thanks to Cami and Eric for procuring tickets for us, and them), but it was so great to spend time with them for a few days.  Next up are the Moodys!
          Thats about all that's new for now.  It's my day off, so I need to go to the bank and run some errands before Kyha gets off work.  Luckily I have my bike to get me there.

InstaBlog September 14, 2013 at 07:55AM

Our first laundromat experience. Felt a little awkward walking in and not knowing what to do, feeling silly because I'm looking for directions or something. Turns out it's pretty easy. Just put your clothes in and pay the money. And wait for a dryer. Then put your clothes in the dryer and wait some more. And then wait some more. I guess it's culture shock, doing laundry this way for the first time, and knowing some of the people here have never done laundry the way I've always done laundry. #laundry #nyc #laundromat #firsttime #instablog