The new digs

I had a doctor’s appointment this morning, so I got to sleep just a little bit later than usual. I left the house in what I thought was plenty of time to make a 9:15 appointment, but I ran into a ridiculous amount of traffic, all of it apparently headed to the parkway exit right before mine. What should have been a fifteen or twenty-minute drive, even with morning rush-hour traffic, took the better part of half an hour. And then I made a slightly wrong turn getting off the parkway — if you turn right instead of left, and go in the exact opposite direction, that still counts as “slightly,” right? — and drove straight into even more traffic. I made a u-turn when I, finally, realized I’d gone off-course, and arrived at the doctor’s office only about ten minutes late. I signed in and took a seat.

And proceeded to sit for the next hour. I had brought a book along, when I thought I might get there early and need it, but then when I ran late, I left it in the car. So I basically just sat, occasionally posting to Twitter about how I was just sitting. After an hour of it, I went back up to the desk to ask what was going on…and discovered that they’d lost the sign-in sheet with my name on it. They hadn’t known I was there.

So anyway, we got that cleared up. And shortly thereafter I actually went inside to see the doctor. It was just a follow-up, so nothing to worry about, and I was back home a little before 11:30. I saw almost no traffic headed back in the opposite direction.

Then I caught a train into Manhattan. I sort of had to: today’s the day we moved into the new office. (I’d actually tried, and failed, to reschedule my doctor’s appointment when I learned it overlapped with move-in.)

I’ll say this about the new place: it’s nice. It looks very professional, and I think it’s the sort of office we’d be pleased to have authors visit. I’m not sold on everything about it, including the open plan layout and my position in it, and some things are going to be a big adjustment. But it is a nice office.

I think tomorrow will be better gauge of how much it messes with my commute. I walked it both ways today, and in the evening it took me maybe twenty-five minutes from our floor to Penn Station. I may give the subway a go tomorrow and see if that helps me any. I don’t mind the extra ten minutes of walking so much — I have podcasts — but I have only so many trains to choose from in both the morning and evening.

Longer term, I’m still planning on moving. My sister and my brother-in-law even bought me a copy of Home Buying for Dummies as a birthday present, so I guess this means I really need to do it. The idea is to find a realtor, find some areas I like — I’m thinking Queens, maybe Forrest Hills — and go from there.

Although, wherever I move, I may have to put up cubicle walls in it, just so I can have them again.