Lefthanded-Rightminded

Saturday, January 22, 2005

3-months-later

The weather report attached below will explain why I am indoors writing this right now.

Severe Weather Alert from the National Weather Service>> ...BRONX NY-KINGS (BROOKLYN) NY-NASSAU NY-NEW YORK (MANHATTAN) NY-> QUEENS NY-RICHMOND (STATEN IS.) NY-SOUTHERN FAIRFIELD CT- SOUTHERN> WESTCHESTER NY- 600 AM EST SAT JAN 22 2005> ... A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH> SUNDAY MORNING...>> SNOW WILL MOVE IN LATE THIS MORNING. THE SNOW WILL BECOME VERY HEAVY> LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING..AND MAY MIX WITH SLEET TONIGHT AS> WARMER AIR MOVES IN ALOFT. TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS WILL BE 14 TO 21> INCHES BY SUNDAY EVENING. IN ADDITION TO THE SNOW... NORTHEAST WINDS> WILL INCREASE THIS AFTERNOON... AND WILL BE QUITE GUSTY TONIGHT AND> SUNDAY MORNING. WINDS MAY GUST UP TO 50 MPH LATE TONIGHT AND SUNDAY> MORNING... ALLOWING VISIBILITIES TO DROP TO NEAR ZERO AT TIMES. THESE> WINDS WILL RESULT IN SIGNIFICANT BLOWING AND DRIFTING OF SNOW AS WELL> AS POWER OUTAGES. WIND CHILL VALUES WILL BE BELOW ZERO AT TIMES.>> A BLIZZARD WARNING MEANS THAT SUSTAINED WIND SPEEDS OR FREQUENT GUSTS> OF OVER 35 MPH ARE EXPECTED WITH CONSIDERABLE FALLING AND OR BLOWING> AND DRIFTING SNOW. VISIBILITIES WILL BECOME POOR... WITH WHITEOUT> CONDITIONS AT TIMES. THOSE VENTURING OUTDOORS MAY BECOME LOST OR> DISORIENTED... SO PEOPLE IN THE WARNING AREA SHOULD STAY INDOORS.>> ANY TRAVEL IS STRONGLY DISCOURAGED. IF YOU LEAVE THE SAFETY OF BEING> INDOORS... YOU ARE PUTTING YOUR LIFE AT RISK.>> THIS IS A LIFE-THREATENING WINTER WEATHER SITUATION! PREPARATIONS TO> PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD COMPLETED BY NOON TODAY!

My favorite part is the last two paragaphs. Thankfully I safely completed my weather preparations by about 12:30; these included buying brownie mix and checking the video store.

I thought that I would take this period of confinement to update everyone on my last three and a half months in New York City. I am living on the Upper East Side with two fantastic girls my age. One loves football and dancing, and the other one works HealthCare PR like I do, so we compare extremely vague stories from work, allowing us to commiserate without saying anything that would be considered privvy information and would therefore get us fired.

I entered a training program at the third largest PR company in New York , RuderFinn.The program ends in about three weeks, but I recently signed my employment offer and will soon move into the position of Assistant Account Executive. Do not be fooled by the title; every job in PR has the word Executive in it(I am currently an Executive Trainee, although there is nothing executive about it.)

I have my own cubicle, complete with a computer and a large poster entitled "ChesapeakeBay". Is it near the press materials and I have become paranoid that people coming to look for letterhead actually want to listen to my music and see who I am IMing.

I work with some really funny people, the most enjoyable ones of course coming from the West Coast. I do not understand the East Coasters and really do not care enough to try to figure them out.

Four days ago the drug I work on was linked in a study to bleeding ulcers.The study was not done very well, but in this post-Vioxx era, you can only imagine how many news stations picked the story up.Or you can actually look it up, if you so choose. Anyway, I have lived in the office the last week. It was pretty fun, but I am pretty sure that was the novelty speaking.

Now for a few of the strange things that I have experienced:

1)The laundromat: It does not matter what time the sign on the door says they close; they close whenever they want to. One night last week I was putting my clothes in the dryer, I was informed that they were closing and I could pick up my laundry in the morning. Since my sheets and comforter cover were in the dryer, I slept in a sleeping bag on my bed and ran to the laundromat the next morning to throw my clean albeit slightly damp clothes and sheets into my cardboard laundry box.

2)The rules necessary to keep NYC the well-oiled machine that it is: There is a resevoir in Central Park that is my favorite part of the entire city. A lot of people go there to exercise, and you can tell who lives there and who is visiting by the way that they do. Most visitors do not notice the sign that tells runners that they must circle the reservoir in a counterclockwise direction.The driving rules are basically every man for himself. I frequently wake up to repeated honking followed by an unbroken stream of curse words.

3)Crazies on the subway: It is normal to have one or two people using the bench in the subway car as a bed. That is fine; I am only alarmed/very amused by the occasional crazy who comes onto the subway car to yell incoherent yet violent thoughts. No matter how crowded the car is, a donut of free air space forms around the individual. For instance, there was the man yelling about his gorilla girls and how he loves his gorilla girls and on Broadway around three something was going down and all the men had better get off the subway at the next stop. My stop was the next one,so I did not have a chance to see what he was going to do if all of the men on the subway car did not actually exit.