Blogging: An Introduction

As a fan of blogging in general and an avid reader of a number of blogs written by people I have never even met and will likely not ever meet, I have decided that giving this blogging thing a shot can't do me too much harm.

This will be useful to you if you are at all interested in receiving updates as to what the heck is going on in my life, but also (and I would hope that this would be the main point of this) if you are open to contemplating my ideas, advice, opinions, insights, questions...and sharing with me your ideas, advice, opinons, questions, facts, dreams, etc. So comment or send me an e-mail if you have something you might offer.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

The Beginning

After 2 days, 20 hours of driving, 1 night in a Virginia hotel, and hours of listening to Vampire Weekend on repeat, I finally arrived in NYC. As I gazed upon the Manhattan skyline from my position on the NJ interstate, I popped in my NYC roadtrip mix tape (CD actually) and cranked up Frank Sinatra:

"These little town blues, are melting away,
I’ll make a brand new start of it - in old New York.
If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere
It’s up to you - New York, New York"
It was rush hour. My google maps directions told me to enter the Lincoln tunnel to NYC. Before entering the tunnel you must pay a toll. Seems standard enough. The interstate opened up to about 15 or so lanes of traffic leading past various toll boths to pay the tunnel toll. After paying the toll, these lanes merged into the tunnel. The tunnel was only 3 lanes wide. I was driving my Toyota 4Runner and towing a U-Haul trailer. Slowly but surely I made it into the tunnel. I did not know where the tunnel led exactly. The directions said that I would be getting on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) after exiting the tunnel. The tunnel led me to Times Square in midtown Manhattan. It was rush hour. I was driving my Toyota 4Runner and towing a U-Haul trailer.
This was my introduction to driving in NYC. I would later learn of the inevitable bumper damage as a result of parallel parking and the indifference to fender benders while in traffic (as I was just this past week while getting on the BQE rear ended by a Porshe whose driver just shrugged his sholders at me and did not even exit his vehicle).
I hit the ground running as they say. After two weeks of "training" (by which I mean 2 weeks spent discussing poverty and volunteers), a bbq at Gracie Mansion, and a short stay once again in the amazing hotel that is the Marriott, I began work at the Department of Consumer Affairs Office of Financial Empowerment, in the financial district just a min walk south of Wall St.
It seems that:
-banks are like wars
-the poor really want to improve their personal finances and the way they manage money
-Al Franken and his character Stuart Smalley had a son who has lived and still does live in
Brooklyn but works in the Financial District (why are you being so closed-minded this is
definitely possible and true).
It's been an interesting start. There is a culture to the financial district unlike any other culture you have ever experienced and I will explain this point further in future posts, but it must be said that there is no melting pot like that of big business and banking.
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1 comment:

  1. UnknownAugust 30, 2009 at 12:41 AM

    "There is a culture to the financial district...[a] melting pot...of big business and banking."

    --A. Alvey, 2009

    You've made it into the Brinkley Collection.

    ReplyDelete

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