new york

Monday

I couldn’t find my MetroCard this morning, so I made the decision to leave the house without it. It’s not a monthly ticket or anything, and the money on it won’t expire, so I figured I would just quickly buy a new one at one of the ticket machines at the Hunterspoint subway station.

Except the Hunterspoint subway station has been under construction for several months, and this morning the spot with the ticket machines was blocked by several workmen and yellow caution tape. So I got in line at the ticket/information booth, and waited behind several people, probably missing a train or two in the process, only to be told something completely unintelligible by the guy inside the booth and refused a new MetroCard there as well.

I really have no idea what he said to me, if he waved me through and I missed it, or if he just told me go away. (Though, really, MTA, if you’re going to block a station’s only ticket machines, you’re going to have to make other options available.) Thankfully, a very nice woman swiped her own card twice, an extra $2.25, so that I could get through the turnstiles and get to work.

So to her, that woman whose name I didn’t even catch, I say again, thanks. And to the MTA employee inside the booth, I say, thanks a lot, pal.

Unless, of course, I misread the situation entirely. Maybe he did wave me through or tell me something other than mumble mumble mumble. Really, though, a tired Monday morning is not the best time for an upset and confusion in your routine.

The rest of the day, and certainly everything post-lunch, was pretty much just a typical day. But I’m so happy to be working from home tomorrow, not so much out of fear of another MetroCard debacle — I got another card at Grand Central at lunch — but just because I want those commuting hours for sleep.

Scavengers assemble!

Today was our company’s second annual New York City scavenger hunt. Like last year, it was a lot of running around midtown Manhattan for charity, teamed up with employees from other subdivisions of our parent company, and all of us clad in very bright yellow shirts with cartoon bananas on them. It was also a lot of fun. It’s ten bucks to charity and you get to leave the office at two o’clock on a sunny afternoon, and if you win the scavenger hunt, the company buys your team a round of drinks.

My team didn’t win — and in fact, I didn’t contribute a whole lot beyond running after the other five guys — but it was, like I said, all in good fun, and for a good cause. This year’s hunt was a lot harder, taking us back and forth — from Dag Hammarskjold Plaza to Rockefeller Center to Grand Central to Times Square to Bryant Park — and less open to interpretation and creativity than last year. This year’s was less scavenger hunt and more Amazing Race. (Or so I assume. I’ve never actually seen it.)

Anyway, it was fun, even if I had to buy my own drink at the end. The cold and rainy weather that moved in yesterday moved out well before we went outside. Which is great, because otherwise I might not have had a chance to wear that stylish T-shirt you see up above.

Monday various

  • Last week, after my little elevator mishap, I linked to the story of Nicholas White, whose ordeal being trapped in an elevator was much worse than my own. We even joked about it, the two of us, while we waited to be released last Friday. He was trapped for 40-something hours.

    Turns out, it only got worse after that:

    He got a lawyer, and came to believe that returning to work might signal a degree of mental fitness detrimental to litigation. Instead, he spent eight weeks in Anguilla. Eventually, Business Week had to let him go. The lawsuit he filed, for twenty-five million dollars, against the building’s management and the elevator-maintenance company, took four years. They settled for an amount that White is not allowed to disclose, but he will not contest that it was a low number, hardly six figures. He never learned why the elevator stopped; there was talk of a power dip, but nothing definite. Meanwhile, White no longer had his job, which he’d held for fifteen years, and lost all contact with his former colleagues. He lost his apartment, spent all his money, and searched, mostly in vain, for paying work. He is currently unemployed.

    That was in 2008, so he may have since landed back on his feet. But it’s amazing how quickly a life can change. He was just coming back from a quick smoke outside.

    It could be worse, though, as a more recent elevator accident will attest.

  • Congress Ponders Adding GED Requirement to Unemployment Benefits. Spoken like a group of people who’ve never been unemployed (or struggled for an education) a day in their lives. [via]
  • In New Hampshire, meanwhile, they want to eliminate the mandatory lunch break. Just on paper, you know. Because it’s an occasional headache for a couple of HR departments. Nobody would ever think of abusing this and denying workers time off for meals! [via]
  • And I guess we’ll make this a trifecta of people who should know better doing reprehensible things: Cardinal Edward Egan Just Withdrew His Apology For The Catholic Sex-Abuse Scandal. “Nope, nothing to see here. My bad for copping to it earlier.” [via]
  • And finally, on a happier note: Roast Beef, the therapy penguin. Seriously, the day before I saw this story, we were joking at work that we should publish a book on penguin therapy.

    I wonder if Roast Beef would need a co-author…

They say it’s a Wednesday

I’ve lost track of the days, although not enough to be unaware that I’m quickly running out of vacation, just four short days left in this end-of-the-year run before heading back to work. I spent this day doing some of the same as yesterday, working on the Kaleidotrope website. It’s not a major overhaul, at least in terms of design, but it’s taken more than just a few tweaks to go from being a print to an online zine. I’m sure it’ll be a whole new learning process even after I launch.

When I wasn’t doing that, I watched “An Unearthly Child,” the first batch of episodes ever of Doctor Who, from 1963. I received a DVD set of William Hartnell’s first episodes as a Christmas present, and while I’d seen some of the Dalek episodes that followed these, I’d never seen the very beginning. It’s…well, maybe it’s easiest just to say it was a rather different show back then from what it is now.

This evening, I picked my parents up at the eye doctor, since they both had appointments, and their eyes were too dilated afterward to drive safely. We went out to eat at a new Latin place that had been written up in the New York Times (and for which we had a coupon), which turned out to be quite good. Even if service was a little confused. Friendly and attentive, but confused. And even if getting into the bathroom was a ridiculously complicated production number: first through a very heavy beaded curtain, into a dark room where you had to stumble around to find the light switch, only to discover to discover the toilet was behind you. Limited space, but a little ridiculous.

Anyway, the food was quite good.

And then we came home and I watched All About Eve, which was really terrific. Bette Davis, in particular, gives a deservedly iconic performance, but the whole film’s great fun.

And meanwhile, it’s gotten remarkably cold and windy the past couple of days. One might almost be tempted to start believing in winter again.

Wednesday various