Day 2 in New York - The Interview and Sleeping With a Romanian

I woke up bright and early (8:00 am, which after the previous day was about two hours too early for my taste) and got prepped and shaved for my interview. I didn't get out the door until about 9:17 am, and the interview was at 9:30. Fortunately, I was just down the street one subway stop, so I entered JetBlue's building at 9:27 am feeling all kinds of triumphant...until I realized I'd forgotten my passport and diploma, required documents for the interview process. "Oh, we can't interview you without those documents." My heart sank into my legs. I said, "Oh, that's a problem, then. I came here from Utah, so I can't just run back and get them." She looked around in a sort of covert operations way and said, "Come with me." After some coordination, I woke up Javier back home to break open my file box and dig through it to find my documents, scan them, and e-mail them. Off to a rocky start, but perhaps this was my chance to show calm and jovial nature in a mini crisis? Too bad they weren't the ones interviewing. ...or good thing? Meh.

Anyway, the 25 of us interviewees were ushered into orientation, where I sat next to a girl from Salt Lake who now lives in San Diego, another guy who currently lives in Salt Lake AND shares my first name, and another lady from...shoot, somewhere else. It was a fun group, so I felt fairly at ease.

Just the night before, John's friend, Bryce, had told me I probably wouldn't meet his former American Airlines employee friend but that if I did, I should tell her hi. She turned out to be one of my interviewers, a fun coincidence, so I passed on the 'hello'. Anyway, the process was kind of fun, actually. Began with some information and greetings, followed by a group activity where we presented ourselves and three things we had in common and one thing unique about each of us. I'm sure we were being evaluated on being in front of a group. Then there was more information, followed by group interviews and drug testing, fingerprinting, jumpseat/reach tests, etc. I also did the Spanish testing but opted against applying for the LOD (language of destination) program for now. Apparently, they were in dire need of Spanish-speakers a couple of months ago, but now it's not nearly as big a deal.

I enjoyed getting to know the other applicants, so the time flew by, and I headed back to John's place around 2:30, feeling pretty good about the whole thing and glad it was out of the way, and thinking maybe I could live in New York after all if it came to that. On the way back, a little ol' lady with a European accent asked me if I could please tell her if there was a subway stop nearby which could take her to Manhattan. Feeling all confident, I happily told her of the stop around the corner and told her which train(s) to take and which direction. Oh yeah, baby. I just gave someone subway directions (hopefully correct ones). Baby steps... When I got back to John's, he grilled me about the process and how it went and reiterated some of his warnings, playfully saying he only had a few days to talk me out of this.

I headed out to meet up with Jacob and Seth at Columbus Circle for dinner, not before stopping at a pizza place for a slice of grandmother's (garlic) pizza, which was oh-so-tasty.




While waiting for my dinner dates, I went inside and bought an irresistible chocolate chip cookie from Bouchon on the third floor in the Time Warner building, or the Shops at Columbus Circle. It didn't disappoint.


We ended up going to a great little Thai restaurant, Room Service, with good prices, perfect portions, and very good food. Then it was off to Marty's to join in a get-together he was hosting. We walked around a bit along the way, past such sites as the Metropolitan Opera building, a new Apple store, the Manhattan LDS temple, and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater building. Gotta love New York.

At Marty's we ate some food and chatted about all sorts of things with an interesting mix of people, including a pre-mish, an acting-hopeful Romanian visiting from London, an acting-hopeful Californian, and a voice-over-hopeful. Again, gotta love New York.

It was getting a bit late to return to John's place near JFK before his bedtime, so I opted to stay at Marty's for the night and enjoy the view of the city from his windows. After walking Jacob to the subway and having a good chat, I found my way back to Marty's while mulling over what it felt like to be a small-town Idaho guy walking alone in Manhattan at night and contemplating the thought of moving there from quiet Utah: I decided it wasn't as big a deal as one might think (though having lived in Seattle, Montreal, and the L.A. area probably offset the whole "small-town boy" thing). Due to limited sleeping arrangements and other guests, our option was to either use the floor or double up on queen beds. I kind of enjoy being able to say I "slept with" a Romanian during my visit to Manhattan.


The next day, I awoke early to run over to John's and pack up my stuff before he headed out of town for the weekend. I left my luggage with the doorman and headed into town, braving the remnants of Ida which really only ended up amounting to some rain and gusty winds, to walk my butt off as much as I could before leaving for Orlando. I got off at a random subway stop (Washington Square), not knowing what I'd find, and started walking. Within a few minutes of following quaint streets full of quirky and interesting shops, I found myself rather unexpectedly and perhaps serendipitously at the Stonewall Inn (home of the Stonewall uprising now commemorated by a sculpture in Christopher Park) in what I later discovered is the West Village, where I reflected on how things have changed over the years and how they have yet to change. I then ate some pizza around the corner at Bleecker Street Pizza, which the Food Network apparently voted the best pizza in New York at some point. It was certainly the best I'd had in a long while. Why do westerners insist on heavy, greasy toppings and soggy crusts? I don't get it.



In my further wanderings through Downtown, I saw the Statue of Liberty (first time I'd seen it, if I remember right--I don't think we got to it when I visited NYC with my parents 14 years or so ago), the Brooklyn Bridge, SoHo, a Peter Lik gallery (I hadn't heard of him before but loved what I saw), a shopping area of Broadway, a movie set (apparently for Wall Street 2, according to a construction worker who said he'd just seen Michael Douglas, Susan Sarandon, and Shia LaBeouf walk into the building), a flea market, and various other random, New Yorky things.


























Then it was time to meet Josh for lunch in Midtown. We walked through the Empire State Building and Bryant Park on our way to Grand Central Station...er...Terminal to eat at Junior's, which had good food and even better cheesecake. Yum.

I ran off after lunch, via subway, to grab my luggage and head to the airport. Along the way, I had some funny encounters with high school students apparently getting out of school for the weekend and arguing about their prom theme, but you really had to be there. I missed my flight, so I hung out in T5 for a while before catching the next flight to Orlando. It was my first real breather in the little-over-two-days I'd been in New York, and I welcomed the rest as I reviewed the last couple of days in which I'd done and seen far more than I had expected to be able to thanks to some kind friends who were willing to show me around a bit. Thanks, guys!