The Room:
Looking Left < -
Looking Right ->
This one is just cause I like it - Taken during the exibition of The Gates in Central Park a while back - That is the Plaza hotel - which I believe is owned by a Canadian company - Fairmont.
Tuesday - Pretty normal working day except for a couple interesting things I guess..
Went for a coffee with Russ and a guy that does M&A deals for a large finacial firm down here and the talk circled around Ferrari’s, race tracks, and toys that are too expensive for my budget taste and common sense; but fun to listen to nonetheless.
The frustrating part of the day was when I got home and the kind person that is providing me with my wireless connection (where ever that might be) had it shut off or not working! How the heck am I supposed to deal with my email and get stuff out if I don’t have a connection. How inconsiderate - after tyring to log into their router with some default usernames and passwords I gave up. The person was smart enough to change thier router password, set the name of their network to ‘the one’ but not secure it - which is a good clue for me as out of the 10 possible choices that show up, ‘the one’ is the only one that is not protected and I can use.
Without a connection I got some more work done on my documents and then went to the starbucks to login and finish the work that I needed an internet connection for. There was a very attractive woman in the shop with bright blue hair… sexy! Other than that and some of the other customers that lead me to believe I need to hang out at Starbucks more often; other than that it was pretty normal starbucks;)
Once the work day was complete I printed off what I could for the Tribeca Film Festival and jumped in a cab to try and catch the box office before it closed. I figured if it closed then I would just line up for what I could - worse case I would get to check out Tribeca and see another part of Manhattan.
The start of missing lots of things:
I arrived at the box office 5 minutes after it had closed… nerst.. oh well. I found a neighborhood pub jumped in and got a beer and looked over the schedule to see if I could find something I was interested in and then head in that general direction.
I finished my beer up at a pub on Greenwich Street I had 45 minutes or so before the show started so I started walking the the general direction of where I thought the cinema was. I was going to go and try to watch The Ruling Class starting at 7pm, unfortunatly it sold out so I didn’t get tickets.
Not to be defeated I decidedto go and try to watch a couple of films playing together Little Peace of Mind and Looking for the Lost Voice starting at 8:30. Unfortunatley that show also sold out and I didn’t get tickets either. At this point I was conversing with a couple of people in the line and it was a pleasent exercise to engage in a social activity.
You can’t keep a good man down, so I pulled out my now tattered schedule and tried to look for another show and saw that Coca - the Dove from Chechnya was playing at 9:15. Me and my two new aquantances headed over to the line and it looked good as there were very few people infront of us. BINGO we got in. The movie started quite late as the Film director and the Festival Director wanted to introduce the film so we waited for them.
The film was very powerful and very disturbing. It helped to cement my view of 3 sides to every story, yours, mine and the truth; with the truth being invisible to all. It was also amazing for me to find out that Chechnya only had about 1 million people in it and they figured that between 180,000 to 300,000+ have been killed in the 10 year war. It was also a film that you left in a somber mood and just felt fortunate for where you happened to be born and the state of the societies that we are currently able to live in.
The simple process of meeting 2 new people made the night, along with the random nature of the evening made for a very enjoyable eving in NYC. They don’t count as ‘friends’ as I don’t have any contact information but it leads me to believe there is hope.
I took the subway home - which would have been my first real ride, although Brian and I did do a very short ride on it on a previous trip. I figured that the NYC subway at 11:30 at night given the right mental approach was going to be pretty comfortable and the $2 to get home as opposed to the $20 I spent to get down there seemed like good idea too. It was an uneventful ride, although on my walk home from the station; which is about 10 blocks; I seen a man fall out of a cab and appear to be somewhat hurt or stunned. I walked over and helped him up on his feet. Turns out he was just really really wasted; he wanted to chat but I figured he likely wouldn’t have had much intelligent or enjoyable to say so I passed on his offer.
Wednesday
Once again normal working day, I’m still going straight to the office in the morning but I am way better at stopping myself a few minutes in and getting the day started right. Had a meeting today - forgot cuflinks in Calgary so I either need new cufflinks or a shirt that didn’t require them. with the meeting at 1 pm, 30 blocks south of here I figured I’d test the shopping availability of NYC. So off to the store, picked up a shirt and tie, back at the apartment ironed everything and headed out the door by 12:30. I walked most of the way as 30 minutes gives a person in a rush lots ground to cover. I also picked up a hotdog on the way 
.
Instead of heading to the climbing gym tonight I figured I would try to head to the fesitval again as I enjoyed the thought of watching more movies and having the makers of the film close by for questions after.
I decided to try and take the train down this time - pretty simple except I got off a little too early. I should have gotten off at the world trade center stop but I got off at the 4 street stop, which was fine by me as I enjoyed the walk through Greenwich Village - neat place.
I got in line for A State of Mind where the two folks from yesterday where going to try to get to. I tried to get tickets online but only door tickets were left. I figured if lined up an hour before it should have given me lots of time. Problem was I got off a little too far away. It was raining lightly with some thunder and lighting just to make is a fancier storm and more entertaining walk, I walked along the westside of manhattan with the statue of liberty off in the distance to the right and the Wall St. area just ahead and off to the left. I arrive 45 mintues before the show and was a bit far back, luckly one of the folks for yesterday was ahead so I walked up figured I’d go say hi and either get the f-off look or visit for a bit. it didn’t really matter to me if I caught this movie or another one at this point as surprises sometime are good and I figured which ever movie it would be it would be okay.
We ended up seeing A State of Mind - a film about North Korea. It was very enjoyable film to watch and really well done. The director had some great answers to the questions after the film and feeling somewhat a 3rd party (not N. Korean and not American), as the film had lots of anti american comments from the North Korean citizens and many in the crowd simply refused to believe that these people could be happy cause their way was wrong - where the comments from the director were that the North Koreans didn’t want to change anybody they simply didn’t want to be persecuted for what they wanted to do and how they chose to live. I’m certainly a fairly ‘devote’ capitalist but there will be lots of people that enjoy the social structure that exists in N. Korea and happiness is a reference point generally, so I might tend to agree that many there might be more happy than many here.
After the film you get to ask the director some questions, this particular audience must have had too many questions as they asked us to move the questions outside the theatre so they could start to get ready for the following production. We were able to talk to the director directly outside the theater with a group of about 10 people. One of the ladies beside me wwas the reason americans look like their ignorant when they travel outside their country (remember it only takes a couple of these to wreck it for the group). She wanted the director to agree with her that these people were not happy, did not like their or The General and generally agree that the american way was right. He rightful told her that he just drove 5000 miles around parts of american and it was a very ugly place in most places, until you got out of the car and talked to people. He reccomended that she do that.
It was also interesting that Americans are not allowed to travel to N. Korea (the N. Korean government won’t allow them) and many of these folks felt cheated by this as they wanted to visit this country. I guess you can’t bully them on the international stage with like the current adminitration has and then expect them to play nice with you.
Anyway.. too political here tonight..
Neighborhood Updates:
1) Couch arrived today!!!! I’ll post pics in the morning when the sun is out
2) Scores - the famous strip club is only 4 blocks away - not sure I need to check that place out first hand though.
I think I will try to catch another film tomorrow and I really want to go and see this Panel discussion on Saturday.
Life is good, still no social network or new friends but we’ll get there.
Today was the first day in the ‘office’ (read: NYC apartment spare bedroom). Apparently old habits die hard… when I started Bitonic my set up was much like my current set-up with a spare room in my primary place of residence acting as the office until more permanent status could be achieved. I used to have a really bad habit of getting out of bed, going straight to the computer to ‘just’ check email and being stuck there for several hours, sometimes not getting up until well after what should have been lunch or supper time. Sure enough this morning same bad habit.. I caught myself after just over an hour, jumped in the shower and forced myself to try and a more healthy start to my day; like eating, showering and getting some fresh air.
Discovery #1 - The Starbucks is right beside the Bed Bath and Beyond, which means it just 3 blocks away.
Discovery #2 - The grocery store is right across the street from Starbucks! Bonus as I do want to get into the habit of at least having some food in the house and eating somewhat healthy; course that has a different meaning for me than the majority of the population.
After my coffee and marble loaf I started my work day, which was a pretty normal day working away at the computer (except for the fact that it is now 1 am, thats a bit long a day for me). Although I miss my home made cookies from ‘the smoky place’, Starbucks marble loaf is not a bad consolation prize - it is also likely the only food the Starbucks has that is not a decendent from the cardboard family.
Work seems pretty status quo - I still seem to be able to be stuck at my computer working and or wasting time for the entire day and evening… I will need to get into a more efficient habit else I will either turn into a hermit or end up horribly lonely and depressed - which can be read as still haven’t met anyone yet.. although that would be impossible given that I have been in the apartment and I am the only one with the keys… We’ll get out tomorrow so long as I get my silly document I am working on completed.
So the plans for the next couple days are - film festival tomorrow night (Tuesday) and climbing (which will really be bouldering) on Wednesday. I will also sign up for the NYC marathon tomorrow, which is a lottery so I am not gaurenteed a spot but lets hope luck is on my side. NAN! also signed up, so we need to hope luck is on her side to, and she’s used up all her bad luck already this year.
Progress on life today included getting registered for a phone number and internet.. The wireless connection that I am using (read: stealing/borrowing) is wonderful and the right price point but I should probably have a more reliable/secure set-up than some strange connection that I have no idea where the source is. It will be a nice back up if my connection goes down though .
The other item that hit me on the head today is the sheer amount of shopping, the closeness of everything and the variety of stores in this place. On my way to the T-Mobile dealer, which was only 5 blocks away, I ran across a neat looking grocery/produce store that looks really good, as well as a large GAP and Banana Republic store that happen to be between here and T-Mobile. This means that I can get my standard uniform white t-shirts close by! I also think there are at least 4 dry cleaners within a one block distance.. I’ll try count them some day when I am bored.
Well off to bed… I’m living up to expectations so far and doing zero exciting things and not getting outside much at all.
Well its been 4 official days since the move and there is little interesting to tell other than trying to get an apartment organized and trying to stay on top of the little bits of work I can while participating in the horribly inefficient vehicular travel to get stuff for the empty apartment.
Take a person that hates crowds, traffic, shopping and spending money and put him/her in NYC to furnish a two bedroom apartment from scratch. PAINFUL!
Fortunalty I had a freind and colleage who was willing to provide a refuge during the migration in what I like to call Fairytale Land; 30 minutes (with no traffic) outside the city. Fairytale land has a perfectly functioning family, lots of green space (think country estate), beautiful running routes right outside the door, waking up to birds chirping in the trees and fresh coffee each morning… not exactly NYC Manhattan living. While staying in Fairytale land I was able to get organized enough to get the following organized:
Today I was able to take the walk from Penn Station (Madison Square Garden) where I arrived from Fairytale land and walk up to the apartment, it seems to take about 60 minutes and the city and its awe seems to be on its way to blending into what I now think is normal but my walk home had such highlights as; the Empire State Building; Rockefeller Center; Central Park and I managed to find some street market on 61st where I picked up a corn bread and mozzarella sandwich thing.. DELICIOUS. I also treated myself to a street vendor hotdog, I don’t think that is going to be getting old any time soon.
I currently sit in a fish bowl as I have no blinds on the apartment and there are several apartments right across the street that no doubt can look and watch my fairly boring life right now. Shopping is painful, shopping for blinds or some sort of curtain seems to be an order of magnitude worse. Bed Bath and Beyond is only 3 blocks away so I will have to just bite the bullet soon and get something as I suspect being the subject of the nosey (albeit bored ones) will probably not be ignorable for much longer.
I plan to try and catch 4 or 5 shows from the Tribeca Film festival this week; as well as meeting someone… I think that sounds easier that it will be. Just saying ‘hi’ and getting a name won’t count. I will also try to head to a climbing gym to see if that bears fruit.
As part of this little boy in a big city experiment I will also try to provide some neighborhood highlights as I encounter them.. So far I have a bed and bath place close, which is good as carrying 4 garbage sized bags of purchases more than 3 blocks might have been even more awkward than it already was.. not that it really bothered me and people here seem used to the less regular.
Neighborhood highlights so far:
Main room with things a bit more normal
My room - guest will get the master room as they can then close the door and have a private area with bed and bathroom.. when they are not there it will be my office
My Office/Guest room - no bed yet - once i figure out if I like the bed I bought I will either order another one or ship it to the guest room and try something different
Main bathroom
Lots to carry in one trip.. The chair is in there for reference, as mentioned above the walk was somewhat comical but I got it all in one trip 
Fairytale Land