Day 1 in New York

After a last-minute decision to bite the bullet and fly myself to New York for an interview, I took my first-ever JetBlue flight last night from Salt Lake at 11:40. Actually, it was late: 12:10ish. I wanted to stay awake long enough to watch the flight attendants, see what I'd be doing if I were offered and accepted a job, and get a feel for JetBlue as an airline. After take-off, I nodded for a bit and woke up in time for snacks and drinks. I had the plantain chips. I like their selection of snacks. Fun. And the screens in every seat. I watched some of Top Chef and some cake decorating show. Hey, it was late-night. Then I slept for a couple of hours before descent.





Landed around 6:00 am New York time, not having been in touch with the friend I was supposed to stay with: John. So not knowing where to go, I picked up my checked bag in Terminal 5 and headed for Terminal 4 to find some grub (I discovered Cape Cod sea salt and vinegar chips, similar to Tim's Cascade Style but not quite as good; Tim's still win). I took advantage of 20 minutes of free wi-fi time (earned by watching an advertisement) to look up a local transit map and figure out how to get to Manhattan, where John lives (last time I checked), 'cause the airport was kinda sketchy.

I made my way on the Air Train to the subway, train E, to 6, to Grand Central Station, where John had proposed meeting the last time I faked a trip to New York, so I thought maybe it'd be good for me to just get there while waiting to hear back from him. But I still hadn't heard from him. An old man with a foreign accent tried to get me to let him use my cell phone with a sob story about being 86 and needing his ride to find him and offering to pay me to use it. Call me heartless: I told him I was sure there were pay phones somewhere and that Information could help him find them and that I needed my phone because I, too, was connecting with a friend and waiting for a call. ...yeah, I didn't trust him, OK? Deciding it was now late enough in the morning to call John without unnecessarily waking him, I did, and he hadn't gotten my voice mail or text messages, and as it turns out, he recently moved east of Manhattan into the Forest Hills area, very near where my interview is to take place. So I hopped back on the 6, to the E, where we met up in his neck of the woods. On the way, I saw a mom running to catch the subway train, with her toddler riding her luggage with a big grin on his face. It was adorable and one of those moments I really wished I'd had my camera ready to capture. But I was laden with much luggage to lug, so I didn't.

After grilling me about possible questions I might be hit with (John's been in the industry for years), going over some of the realities and challenges of the job as well as some benefits of it, and scheduling a bit of our day, I hit the hay, slept for nearly 2 hours, showered, and we were off to downtown to see some sights and print my resume. He had a meeting, so I wandered the Times Square area, spending part of it sitting in Father Duffy Square, snapping random pictures of interesting folks, mostly of them taking pictures. I didn't want only a bunch of pictures of Times Square signs I could just look up on Google Images, so it seemed an acceptable alternative.













After grabbing some split pea and ham soup (it was good and similar to Mom's!) at Hot and Crusty to keep me from fainting, we met up with an acquaintance of his and headed to dinner at Rocking Horse Cafe in Chelsea, where one of the guys at the door of a restaurant/bar stared at me the whole...time...we walked by, a level of forwardness to which I am perhaps not completely accustomed. I just looked back at him a couple of times to see if he was still looking (boy was he ever) and maybe half-smiled in a sort of amused "I'm-not-sure-what-to-do-with-that" way while continuing my conversation with my cohorts. I had a chicken dish with pumpkin seed salsa over grilled veggies. It was quite palate-pleasing. Then we headed to Central Park and the Time Warner building, shared gossip and opinions about Anderson Cooper, and went to the Carnegie Deli for strawberry cheesecake and pickles. That's right. The cheesecake was pretty much amazing. So smooth and creamy. Oh, and the pickles weren't so bad, either.



Afterwards, we went to find the JetBlue building down the street from John's place, and I am now home weighing the pros and cons of living in the New York area...there are plenty of both. I doubt I'd want to live here very long. Not in love with it like so many are. Tomorrow after the interview should be more of a fun day, and I'll hopefully be more awake, so we'll see how that goes.