Home to Manhattan

Today is the second rainy day I've seen in the two weeks since I got to NY. I went shopping at Macy's (big sale!) and then went to Brooklyn for the first time. I had a list of 4 homes that a realtor had sent me via email yesterday, and a couple others I found on the Web myself. Though the open houses aren't until tomorrow, I wanted to be sure I could find my way there and snoop around the Park Slope area a bit.

It's a good thing I did, otherwise I would've gotten lost in the subway system because the F train was replaced by the G train for one leg of the trip--for this weekend only. And the signs aren't that helpful. Subway maintenance, I guess. Thank god for a sweet girl I met on the train who showed me just how to get to the 7th Ave. stop I was headed for.

So this Park Slope area is supposed to be VERY NICE, according to the agent (and the girl on the train). Really wonderful. One of the best places to live in Brooklyn. The homes I was looking at ranged in price from $399,000 to $445,000--and all were "floor-thrus," meaning you buy one floor of the building, which is typically a brownstone. (What we call a townhouse in other parts of the country.) Most were pre-war walk-ups (meaning no elevator).

You know what? Looks like I'm going back to Plan A, which is to rent a place in the city. I didn't think I'd like living in Brooklyn. It had all the dinginess and filth and look and feel of a real city, but none of the excitement. Too residential. I just didn't feel right about it. I didn't like being so far removed from Manhattan. When I got off the train at 50th and Broadway after my trip to Brooklyn, I felt like I was "coming home." It felt good to be back in the city. So I'll probably skip the open houses tomorrow.

I'd just had a very pleasant conversation with a tourist from France. (See--I even enjoy the Manhattan subways more than the Brooklyn ones!) I actually spoke French to him! A whole sentence. That's another first for me--I've never spoken French to a Frenchman. Ha! And he understood me!! I asked him (en Francais) the French word for "book" because his travel companion had the same great NY Eyewitness Travel Guide that I have. How fun is THAT!?

"Susan, don't eat the ornaments off the tree...." That's Lucille Ball scolding one of her 18 kids in "Yours, Mine, and Ours," playing on TV right now. I remember loving that movie when I was a kid. BTW, why is fat kid in the movies always named Susan? :)

Worked from home Friday, thinking I could finally get caught up on email and "paperwork," but I never got the chance. My customer called me on my cell first thing, and I was off and running on that critsit case they'd opened up earlier. The case had since been downgraded, but we were still investigating. Turned out to be third-party software causing the problem. I actually helped solve the case (by noticing a "/no reset" in their Tivoli script on a patch installation that absolutely requires a reboot). There you have it--the "T" in TAM. ;-) Ha ha ha!

I love this job. It's extremely fast-paced. Busy, busy, busy. I swear, I've never gotten more email than I do on this job. It seems like I'm always frantically catching up on email (and never quite successful in whittling it down to a non-scrollable Inbox).

Not to mention, I used to learn something new every day on my old job. Now it's more like I learn 12 new things a day!! My brain is totally swelled. I'm finally learning how to use all the new "real-time collaboration"-type technology that I've adamently avoided for years--instant messaging, cellular Internet connectivity, wireless text messaging, recording pictures, videos, and voice with my phone, etc., etc. So much to learn, but I'm glad I finally took the plunge into the wireless world. My brother Dave will be proud, as will my friend Paul who leads a paperless life. :)