Lost in Transit

I had my first major "New York" experience. Last night around 10pm, I left my apartment to get some stuff printed at Kinko's. In New York, you have to plan your route through the subway. I like to jot it down a piece of paper along with an address, intersection, and phone number. In this case, for one reason or another, I wrote down a second location as well.

When I first got down to the subway, I let the first train go because it wasn't the one I wanted. Then I realized there's only part time service available.. so I have to adjust my route and make a couple transfers. But it's also night so you have to wait up to half an hour between trains.

I get to the first Kinko's and it turns out that it's only a FedEx drop station! Back to the subway I go. The second location was at 34th and 2nd ave.. but this location is closed for renovations and it reroutes me up to 37th and 3rd ave. By the time I make it there, it's midnight and Mr. European is hordeing the color laser printer with his 500 page booklet.

$120 and 1.5 hrs later, I'm ready to head home. But what I'm realizing is that there is no easy route to get from the East Side to Morningside in West Harlem. It have to take the 7 from Grand Central to the Times Square, walk the tunnels over to Port Authority and finally hop on an A or C to get me home.

The train takes a good 30-40 minutes at Grand Central and another 10-15 at Port Authority. I'm so relieved to see a train that I hop on, blindly. But the next thing I know... I'm in effing Queens! I'd gotten on the E train!

I wait another 30 minutes to get back over to Midtown and say Eff It, I'm taking a $15 cab ride home. In bed by 4:30 am. Starving because I was supposed to eat while getting stuff printed but got lost instead.

But ya know what, none of that phases me. I woke up at 8 this morning, put on a suit, a pair of shiny black shoes, a nice belt, then proceeded to talk my way into a job at my first interview in NY! Lady said I more than demonstrated that I was qualified for the job, will fax my resume over to her client, and will contact me midweek next week with more details. The office is on 43rd and 5th ave, real close to Times Square. It's an industrial design job that deals with corporate sponsorship within both pharamceauticals and high end electronics.

The secretary said my name even sounds like a high end designer.

I moved here Sunday, spent Monday in Philly, and really only started "NY Life" on Tuesday. And I have a job already. Amazing.