Phone Photo Op - Blog Business Cards

East Village Idiot has business cards for his blog. Hilarious. But perhaps necessary since his blog has received varying levels of acclaim throughout the city and is often cited in the city's periodicals. I skimmed his business card in vain hoping to find his favorite exploits of English grammar, and I was slightly disappointed that his card was grammatically flawless.

Cuz I wanted to do this:

Morning-After Text Messages

Supporting evidence regarding the unspecified hilarious affairs of our company's holiday party:

"so much fun last nite i woke up this am with a pound of glitter on my face :-)"
- Text message received at 10:15 a.m. from my endearingly gay, male colleague

Search-Term Saturday: Manhattan Real Estate Depression

Someone in Schenectady, New York, googled "Manhattan Real Estate Depression" yesterday and found my blog. I have a chronic case of it.

Other search results provided:
"The Manhattan Real Estate Slump that Wasn't" - The New York Times
"Will the Real Hangover Please Stand Up?" - Urbandigs.com
"What the Credit Crunch Means for NYC Real Estate" - Curbed.com

Ok ... now I am going back to bed. I have to go play tourist in a few hours with Cassie (Metro-North-ing it up from New Haven) and her brother (arriving on an early flight from North Carolina) and Iris (living five blocks up and five avenues over) and her mother (also visiting from good ol' North Cacalacky).

On Cloud New York

You know a corporate annual meeting is getting long when the senior marketing manager starts poking one of the sales directors in the back with a banana, your boss is surfing the Internet on an iPhone, and every time you turn around, one of the other executive assistants is struggling to keep her eyes open and mostly ends up looking cross-eyed.

And you know I got home and passed out early after too much wine at the company holiday party when I'm up blogging at 5am on a Saturday. According to my call history, I had a fairly lengthy conversation with Terrence when I got home around 10:30pm, but I don't remember how the phone call ended. I am legendary in North Carolina for falling asleep at a moment's notice ... and anywhere - with or without alcohol (the Waffle House in Cullowhee at 4am is just one example). Even narcoleptic, if you will.

But yesterday was a good day, and I woke up today at 4:30am to all of the lights ablaze in my apartment (which is like three light bulbs total) and still wearing the clothes I had worn to our annual meeting and company holiday party the day before. After changing into pajamas, washing off my makeup and turning off two of the light bulbs, I flipped open my laptop and decided to blog about why yesterday was so good. Please forgive me in advance for all the run-on sentences to follow.

Various prizes were raffled off throughout the company's annual meeting just prior to the holiday party that commenced immediately thereafter, where our colleagues would sample signature dishes served by famous New York chefs handpicked by our company's founder/former CEO. Not to mention the open bar that would bear many a witness to hilariously inappropriate behavior. Some of the best prizes included a five-course tasting menu and wine pairing at one of New York's top restaurants, horseback riding and dinner at the home of our company's founder, a one-week stay in a Florida condo, a 70% off shopping spree to Dolce & Gabbana, a consultation with the makeup artist of our company's founder, and a one-week stay in a two-bedroom apartment in Paris (located just a few blocks from the Eiffel Tower).

So I won none of the prizes.

That was no surprise because I never win raffles, but something better happened. A few months ago, I had entered a company-wide contest for a new business idea. I had prepared a brief proposal and presented it to the President of Media in November. At the end of the annual meeting, it was announced that I was one of eight finalists selected out of more than 40 new business proposals submitted to various divisions of the company. I will be presenting my idea to our founder/former CEO and our current CEO in January! The winner(s) will receive their choice of $1000 in cash or $1200 in company stock, plus the chance to help develop their project, which will receive funding and be incorporated into the future of the business.

When my name was called and the description of my new business idea was read, I tried to stand only briefly, but my boss forced me back up and held my arm as a warning to continue standing. I am immensely shy when attention is focused on me in large rooms, and I sort of zoned out as I tried not to smile too awkwardly and was unsure of where I should avert my gaze. Do I look around the room at the 900-odd faces looking up at me, do I stare straight ahead, do I wave? All of those questions were clogging my mind. I couldn't hear anything that was being announced about me or my idea, and when the applause began, I sunk back into my seat, relieved. It was not until later when I learned that as the CEO finished reading the description, our founder had commented: "Oh, we can totally do that."

I made a mental note to seek out the President of Media during the holiday party to thank her for selecting my idea as a finalist. Unfortunately for the articulate, brief and gracious thank-you speech I had prepared in my head during my first glass of wine, she found me on what may have been my fourth. Just as I was opting to instead send her a thank-you note on Monday, she approached me and grabbed my arm, "So what do you think? How do you feel?"

In my exhilaration that (1) I was a finalist, (2) I was tipsy, and (3) the President of Media (who is a very big deal in our industry and was recently a high-level executive in one of the world's biggest Internet companies) had actually approached me at the holiday party, I began to babble thank yous and I think I even hugged her.

I don't mean to sound like a total groupie, but generally people are trying to find reasons to approach her - not to mention the entourage of colleagues often at her heels. And there I was in a huge room filled with all of the head honchos in our company, and she had come to congratulate me. I know it speaks more to how down-to-earth and involved she is, but I couldn't help but feel .. err ... special. As I continued to gawkily thank her and inelegantly tell her how excited I was to be a finalist, she pulled my arm a little firmer, leaned in close and said, "No, it's more than that. I want to do your idea."

I stood there staring at her, my mouth agape. She stared back and nodded, "Yea."

My mouth continued to hang open. She smiled and nodded a second time, "Yea."

I think I may have said thank you for the upteenth time, but that might have just been in my head. I may have just continued to stand there and stare at her. Still smiling as she began to move on, she squeezed my arm: "Enjoy your evening."

I watched her walk away.

I spent the rest of the evening reeling with excitement and silently eulogizing the day I decided to move to New York City. Then, I took a cab home while incoherently blathering the night's summary to my parents and endured a brief lecture from my mother on why I shouldn't drink so much. Once in my tiny studio apartment in Harlem, I passed out on top of my bedsheets, under the heat of three light bulbs, wearing a black sweater dress, matching opaque tights and stilettos.

Cloud Nine? Not really. It was more like Cloud New York.

"Things I Love" Thursdays - Fall Foliage

I love autumn leaves on New York sidewalks.



"Things I Love" Thursdays are inspired by "I Love New York" (BNY, February 14, 2007).

Choices

Do you ever put your arms out and spin and spin and spin really, really fast? New York can spin you like that. You get caught up ... and if you're not careful, if you don't keep your eye on something still, you could lose your balance. You can’t see what’s happening to the people around you … You can’t see that you’re about to fall.

Phone Photo Ops - Around the Office

Please accept exhibits A, B and C (camera phone photo ops taken last Friday) as circumstantial evidence regarding the types of people with whom I work.

Exhibit A (our senior marketing manager)


Exhibit B (in the office of our director of advertising operations)


Exhibit C (in the office of the VP)

Phone Photo Op - WTF amNY?

IDK that amNY 86ed Five-on-Five.

So even though I generally only take the amNY each morning on my way to the gym in order to help the adorable, little woman at the top of the Bryant Park Station subway stairs at 42nd and Fifth do her job, I actually skim through it 1-3 times a week. I was disappointed yesterday to read various letters to the editor regarding the termination of Five-on-Five. And there among the various responses to the “feature’s apparent demise” was even a note from the East Village Idiot, a New York blog that I read regularly and to whom I frequently link posts whenever he writes anything that really makes me LOL.

So no more Five-on-Five, huh? Well, OMG. INBD. Before I stop talking like a sixth grade school girl, I just wanted to say that there are few things better than witty, sarcastic sports banter on a Friday morning following a long workweek, and now there is only one reason left for me to continue picking up this paper. So if the adorable, little woman at the top of the 42nd and Fifth Bryant Park subway stairs ever stops greeting me each morning with an amNY, a cute smile and the words, “Have a good day, miss,” I will start taking the Metro instead! You hear that, amNY!

Featured in the camera phone photo op below is the adorable, little woman (in the hoodie and red vest) facing off against the orange and green Metro New York paper hander-outer.

Search-Term Saturday: Living in North Carolina vs New York City

Someone in Raleigh googled "living in north carolina vs new york city" on Wednesday and found my blog.

The search results also yielded:
"I'm Moving Out of New York City" - Penelope's Trunk

I've quoted her before and I'll quote her again:
"I’m always surprised when people leave New York. I mean, where do they go?"
- Samantha, "Sex & the City"

Phone Photo Op - Price of Friendship

In New York, you're more likely to have friends who are designers at Coach and can get you $1200-worth of merchandise for $50 at an employees-only sample sale. I now have two bags and a wallet. Yes, three items = $1200. I guess I should increase my renter's insurance.

Phone Photo Op - This is a No. 2 Express Train

On mornings when I don’t leave for the gym at 6 a.m., I am tormented by the internal debate of whether I should stay on the downtown no. 1 local train or switch to an express no. 2 or 3 at 96th Street. Under normal circumstances, this should be a no-brainer if one wants to quicken his or her commute. However, in the midst of rush hour, you are more likely to stand on a no. 2 or 3 train crammed between someone’s ear and someone else’s armpit and watch a nearly empty no. 1 train pace you all the way to 42nd Street.

Today I made the switch to my own detriment. Below please note the armpit of the woman in the black coat, the man in the blue jacket about to be smashed by the closing doors, the grimace of the girl in the red (who would also watch mournfully as multiple no. 1 local trains passed our no. 2 express), and what appears to be a hand holding a baby in a tank top ... What the ...? It's 30 degrees outside! I didn't notice that while on the train so let's give the weary commuters of Gotham benefit of the doubt and assume it's a very life-like doll. Please further note the man seated comfortably on the empty no. 1 train across the platform.

“Things I Love” Thursdays - It’s a Small World

I am quite certain that Walt Disney came up with the theme after spending time in New York. It can feel like a small world if you run into someone in Pobunk, Nowhere, but the big city intensifies the small world feeling because it seems like it should be less likely to run into a random person from your present or past in such a crowded, busy place, where skyscrapers dominate the skyline reducing you to a figurative needle in a concrete haystack.

Yet small world tendencies are so New York. Aside from coming into daily contact with almost every culture on the planet within 22.7 square miles, over the last year Terrence and I have shared separate A-train reunions (1 and 2), my co-worker Jenny and I met a guy at Bryant Park Café who had been an elementary school student in West Chester under Jenny’s mother, I discovered a second or third-ish cousin (by marriage) works with me in another division of the same company (3), my co-worker Scott went to high school in North Carolina with my best friend (4), I recently found an old friend from my high school # 1 town (Camp Lejeune) who is living right across the Hudson in Bergen County, my best friend ran into an old classmate from our North Carolina college on the subway, a former colleague from my days in NC higher education administration got a job two blocks away from my office … and within the last few weeks:

While I was in my high school #2 town (Asheville) over Thanksgiving, my old classmate Ben and I realized over a beer in a North Carolina bar that we had seen the same stealth bomber flying over New York City on the same day in 2006. I had, in fact, randomly included my sighting from the 167th Station in the Bronx in a blog post (5), and he had been visiting New York two Septembers ago and had seen it glide over Central Park that very same day.

Iris and I left our respective offices (at 42nd Street and 34th Street) during rush hour and ended up on the exact same uptown no. 1 train when I switched from an express at 96th Street. Granted she was on her way to my apartment and we had coordinated our departures to arrive in Harlem around the same time, but the trains run more frequently at rush hour so the chances of meeting on the same car become even less.

I received texts from my secret service buddy and Brian when they ended up in the same midown diner as Iris at 4 a.m. And I received another text from my sorority sister Tiffany when she met Iris for the first time via Iris' former Brooklyn roommate (Iris just moved to a luxury highrise in Harlem this week).

I am frequently reminded how small the big city is, and that is something to love when the big city can just as frequently make you feel so small.

"Things I Love" Thursdays are inspired by "I Love New York" (BNY, February 14, 2007).

Phone Photo Op - Men in Macy’s

The Bedding Section: Where wives leave husbands to convene during holiday shopping outings.

Note: This was so much funnier when all of the men were sitting down on the edges of the bed looking forlorn, but as I was hovering by the towels trying to snap a camera phone photo op undetected, the guy in the red jacket jumped up when the group began discussing the Knicks.

Phone Photo Op - Starbucks Christmas Blend

The marketing ploy behind holiday mark-up coffee beans. I mean, does anyone ever mistakenly brew it in July and then upon first sip say, “Oops ... Is this the Christmas blend?”

"Things I Love" Thursdays - Christmas in New York

I love the start of the Christmas season in this city.

"Things I Love" Thursdays are inspired by "I Love New York" (BNY, February 14, 2007).

This Workplace Break Sponsored by Un-PC PCs

Since I work in digital advertising, I generally understand content-relevant advertising so I find it slightly offensive and totally amusing that my myspace homepage triggers these text link advertisements:

Annual Conference

I'm back in New York after enjoying Thanksgiving with my parents in Asheville. And the first annual conference for our department kicked off on Monday with a formal Moroccan dinner on the set of our company's TV studio with our founder and former CEO, which featured courses prepared by her personal chef. To follow were three days of personal and professional discovery and a night of pizza, beer and trivia at Dempsey's Pub in the Lower East Side.

I found one of the most notable moments over the past three days to be when our brand new SVP said to an attentive audience in the executive conference room (and I paraphrase):

"As with any new job, you go into it with a certain degree of uncertainty. On my third day, [VP*] asked me what she could tell me that no one else had yet. So I said to her, 'How about the truth?'"

"Without hesitation, she replied, 'I have an amazing team and I love them. They will walk through walls, they'll do anything you ask. We'll hustle for you. Let us go.'"

"That night when I got home, I said to my wife, 'I made the right decision. My leader of sales didn't answer the question with a question. She gave me a definitive answer regarding the truth.'"

*Name removed to preserve anonymity; however, he was referring to the woman I assist directly.

When the Past Comes Back

Have you ever been out with friends you haven't seen in years, chatting about the past, the future and everything in between? Then, your jaunt down memory lane recalls a name and face you haven't thought of in years, and you say, "Oh my God! What has Casey Cordell been up to these days?"

The faces become sullen and brief glimmers of pain flash across the eyes of those around you and someone says, "He died a few years ago."

That happened to me last night with friends at Whiskey Tavern in downtown Asheville. It reminded me of times when old friends and acquaintances would ask me about Rickey in the first years after he died, and I sometimes wonder how many people that he knew still may not know about him - just like I still hadn't known about Casey.

Today I return to New York and again go back thinking of how much I am truly thankful for.

"Things I Love" Thursdays - Going Home

I love catching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on television and remembering that I live there. And I love that I get to return to New York after holidays.

"Things I Love" Thursdays are inspired by "I Love New York" (BNY, February 14, 2007).

Aging, Not Wrinkles, Is Cruel

I am not afraid of dying, but rather of becoming old. No. Let me rephrase. I am not afraid of looking old, but I am afraid of my mind aging.

There is something endearing to me about getting wrinkly and creaky with someone that you love, about having time wash over you and the years spread across your face and bodies, about sharing moments and memories that create a lifetime. There is an interesting study about why some old lovers look alike, which I found fascinating.

But I fear losing my cognitive abilities and my memories, being psychologically alone and emotionally trapped within the prison of my own mind. Whereas now I revel in my own private, daily ponderings as I cruise through life and often struggle vainly to recall as I rush to put pen to paper in order to preserve them, I simultaneously fear the time when I might be trapped alone with my own thoughts and no way to express them.

Tonight we shared Thanksgiving dinner with my parents' neighbors (and surrogate grandparents) Jack and Sarah. My family has been watching Sarah grow increasingly ill over the years, and it has taken a small toll on each of us, especially since Alzheimer's runs on both sides of the gene pool. While physically Sarah is in fine shape, her mind has been deteriorating slowly for the better part of five years. And it is so hard to watch her struggle in her own self-induced confusion and disorientation, whimpering like a child one moment and snapping back to a seemingly normal adult-like state the next.

It was an odd evening as we shuffled between instances of not remembering who I was or whether Sarah could hold her orange juice to reteaching her how to toast a glass. In an effort to keep Sarah's mind working, Jack probed her with sporadic questions.

"And who am I?" he asked, posing the question as a fond joke rather than an interrogation method to make sure she was still with us.

Sarah looked up from her stuffing and green bean casserole and announced proudly, "You're my man!"

Minutes later she was breathing heavily and appeared paranoid, tugging on the drawstrings of her pants and on the verge of tears. Later when Jack joked with her about a personal matter, she leaned in affectionately, squinted her eyes at him and said, "You be good now!"

I kept wondering what thoughts get locked inside and how scared she must feel sometimes. But my heart also reaches out to Jack, who has assumed his caretaker role out of a sense of duty, perhaps unconditional love, and even a degree of fear. Fear of being lonely maybe? Fear of not being able to afford the high-priced assisted living that she already needs?

And that thought scares me, too. That one day I will watch someone I love deteriorate rather than have them watch me. In some ways, you are then locked in your own mental prison as the one person who shares a lifetime of memories and thoughts can no longer make sense of the world around them. The wrinkles I can deal with. When Jack looks at Sarah or when Sarah is really seeing him, you can tell that they each see what the other thinks they still look like. And that's what I want - someone who will see what I think I still look like.

Between her fits of anxiety, Sarah would graze the table cloth with her fingers or trace the designs of her placemat and would repeatedly comment on its look and texture.

"Beautiful," she would say slowly in a low, sophisticated tone before returning to a high-pitched, childlike whimper. I guess despite Alzheimer's grip on her mind, she still searches for the beauty of this life.

That is what I chose to be thankful for this year.

Sweet Home North Carolina

"Enjoy the oxygen. Make this week about doing things u cant do in the city. It will b cleansing & therapeutic. NY will be here when u get back, SAMANTHA!" Tokii texted me before she, too, left New York for Raleigh.

"Awww...poor thing! the city loves u too! enjoy the south as much as u can while youre there! ;) so when we both get back on sat. we will have 2 celebrate our fabulous lives [in nyc]." That was a text from another friend headed to NC for the holidays.

So many North Carolinians in New York. Seems to be a trend among those of us trying to put the "Y" in "NC". As much as I am slightly itching to get back to the city, I have to admit that I have enjoyed being back in my high school #2 town. I define towns I've lived in by the stages of my life. Since I don't have a hometown due to my military brat upbringing, there are my elementary school #1 and #2 towns, my middle school town, my high school #1 and #2 towns, my college town and so on. I guess New York City will be my life town.

I've been catching up with old friends, going through old yearbooks and high school notes stored in boxes in my old bedroom, reminiscing on a life that is almost an astounding 10 years behind me. Hanging out and drinking beer in Wild Wing Cafe or Whiskey Tavern isn't exactly like the trendy Lower East Side lounges, Tenjunes and Marquees of my new life, but there is something comforting to be found when surrounded by the people and places of your past. I don't know if I ever really fit in down here in Asheville, but good memories have a way of making you feel welcome.

Phone Photo Op - En Route To Time Out

So I made Friday and Saturday into one long day by pulling an all-nighter before flying to North Carolina for the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Tokii and I joined friends for an album-release party at a club in the Lower East Side before returning to my apartment at 4am so I could pack and catch a 8:50am flight out of La Guardia. Surprisingly I was not regretting the up-all-night extravaganza as much as I thought I would as I wheeled my suitcase out of my apartment and hailed a cab to the nearest M-60 bus stop.

Tokii has her own set of keys to my place so she saw me off before crashing on my side of the Hudson River rather than hauling it back to Jersey. We had to admit though that we were both a little shocked at how alert we were at 5:30am - especially as our bodies get farther and farther from those college days. In fact, it was probably easier to get rolling (literally) at that hour without napping.

I don't know what it is about leaving New York for me. Even when I know I'm coming right back. But as the M-60 bus crossed over the East River in the early dawn, I felt a slight twinge of sadness as my journey South began.

Gina B. and I met at the airport and chatted momentarily while waiting for our respective flights to Greensboro and Charlotte (where my parents would be meeting me to drive the final 2 1/2 hours of my journey to their mountain home). Cassie was also flying to North Carolina today, but on a later flight and was still en route via train from Connecticut. As we had all expected, the Thanksgiving travel was already crowding the airport.

I boarded my flight around a quarter to 9 o'clock, took a few photos with my digital camera (digital photos uploaded below) as we cruised over my neighborhood and banked south, then slept through beverage service and the subsequent landing in NC. As the plane taxied to our gate in Charlotte, I happened to notice that the stamp from the nightclub was still on my wrist - the last bit of evidence from my New York night out ... 12-hour-old make-up, sweat suit and frizzy hair notwithstanding ...

New York By Air

Photos with my digital camera upon take-off from La Guardia featuring my office building in midtown and my apartment in Harlem.

Phone Photo Op - Autumn in New York

More signs of autumn arriving in mid-November as seen looking up from a New York taxicab.


A canopy of leaves in Madison Square Park

Phone Photo Op - Dinner in the Dark

Enjoying exotic food by candlelight last night courtesy of my club promoter friend and the fabulous dinner parties she throws each week.

I'm not sure what I ate, but it was good. It might have helped if I could see, but the dim lighting set the mood, and everyone looks more attractive in the dark.

Phone Photo Op - Subway Rules

On my way to a downtown dinner party last night, I realized that I have made it over a year in New York without ever knowing the rules of the subway.

"Things I Love" Thursdays - Metro Book Club

I love opening a novel on the subway. It makes the ride go faster and I can catch up on some reading.

"Things I Love" Thursdays are inspired by "I Love New York" (BNY, February 14, 2007).

Phone Photo Op - Fall is in the Air

Or on the leaves anyway. It's warm one day, bitter cold the next. I, and my wardrobe, wish that the temperature would make up its mind.

West 135th Street

Phone Photo Op - Returning from Sick Leave

Call in sick for one day and return to 100 emails.


Enjoy this last shot of Lotus Notes; our company switches to Outlook soon! Thank God!

"Things I Love" Thursdays - Fall Fashions

The wardrobes change as dramatically as the autumn leaves in New York.

"Things I Love" Thursdays are inspired by "I Love New York" (BNY, February 14, 2007).