October 22nd, 2001.  Monday

 

    I'm writing this right now because Nora couldn't talk right now. She said "I'm singing my song for my mom?"   Nora turns five tomorrow.

    So I had my first day of work today. The day started rather inauspiciously.  The F train stopped running to Manhattan, then the A and C also stopped.  So I couldn't get into Manhattan. I was cutting it close as it was, but I ended up being over an hour late.  I had to take the G train into Williamsburg and take the L into Manhattan. After an hour, it almost became a perverse fascination, like a little game, wondering exactly how much longer it was going to take to get into Manhattan.  Of course, the people at my new job were sort of wondering where I was.  But all was OK in the end I think.

    I didn't really do much my first day. Squared away some insurance stuff, and went to a meeting, even though I had no idea what they were talking about. It took a concerted effort not to fall asleep. I actually had to sit there and pinch myself to keep my eyes open. Even in school, or when I was driving late at night and falling asleep, I never resorted to inflicting pain on myself.  But this meeting just put me to bed.  Anyway, it's nice that James works there too.  It makes work so much more pleasant when I can take little breaks and stop by and talk with someone I actually like speaking with.  The job itself really isn't that bad. I know what I'm doing, there's never really all that much of it from what I can tell, and most of the people are pretty friendly.  I started a little refresher on the work today.  I worked there last summer, and most of what I forgot came back pretty quickly, including the pain in my left pinky from hitting the same key over and over and over.

    After work, the big debate was where to go to kill time until my night job started.  The choice was between the gym or a bar. I was dead tired, and I thought a beer, or maybe some coffee, would do me right.  But in the end I went to the gym.  And I feel better for it.  A big part of the tired was more mental than physical, and a little physical activity really lifted me up.  I also went to the gym I went to all summer, when I worked in the World Trade Center.  It's the first time I've been that far downtown since September 11th.  It was pretty eerie.  The windows of the gym are still covered with dirt and grime.  I never knew my way around down there too well, but whenever I was lost I at least had two giant towers to tell me which way was south.  So today it was particularly disorienting to be running around down there.

    Then I still had some time to kill, so I sat in a coffee shop on East 3rd street.  I just collapsed into a rocking chair. I was getting ready to leave, when the Palace Music cd, Hope, came on.  So I sat back down and enjoyed that for a while, then sat in Tompkins Square Park for a while.  After spilling some coffee down my leg, and headed off for work, which I was about 10 minutes late for. I was sure I'd have to watch Monday Night Football again tonight, since they like my trivia questions so much, which meant I'd me at work till about 1 am.  Thankfully, I only had to endure an episode of 7th Heaven.  Which is on at eight.  And Nora had been watching that show all summer, so I was pretty familiar with it and it didn't take any time at all and I was out of there by 9:30,  Then I called Caryn and she met me for a beer at a bar on Houston street. Then home. And here I am. And now I'm going to make a phonecall.

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