First Day in New York!!

I could count my interview as my first day in New York, but I don't. I was only there briefly and I was with my stepbrother for most of the time. Today, however, I was completely on my own. It was a wonderful day, albeit interesting and stressful at times. I'd like to capture today for myself and share it with my friends in Radford.

So I wake up about 5:45, shower, get dressed and leave around 7:20 without eating breakfast. I make it to the train station with no problems until I could find a parking spot and had to park in some ghetto lot. I got my ticket and got on the first train heading to New York. Unfortunately, I got on a local train, which stops at every station between Princeton Junction and Penn Station. I heard the conductor tell a lady we'd get into NYC at 9:32. WHAT? We left at 8:04 AND I had an appointment at 10:00. Well, that's just great. I'm getting fire for being late before I even start. I got to NYC at 9:32 and was able to get a cab pretty quickly. We sat in traffic forever and I ended up being 10 minutes late to my appointment.

BUT, since they were running behind and I had to wait 1 hour and 15 minutes it didn't really matter. I got my physical - the nurse was a riot. I then got my ID picture taken and then went to get my blood work done. It ended up taking me 30 minutes to walk to my fourth task, but there was nice breeze and 101st has a lot of beautiful buildings. I didn't have time to get my drug test done today, so I took the rest of the day to just explore and enjoy.

I walked through Central Park. It was gorgeous!! Everyone talks about New York being loud, polluted and crowded. BUT, there were parts of the park where I was completely alone. It was clean and the people were friendly. I took some pics, which will be on Facebook soon. There was a man-made pond where people can rent remote-controlled boats. It was so much to sit on a bench, enjoy the cool afternoon and people watch.

I wanted to be productive so I decided to find the subway. I had a blurry map that said there was a subway station on Lexington. I couldn't read the intersecting street numbers, but thought I'd give it a shot. I ended up exploring the neighborhood and finding the station. One part was sad. I bought a Gatorade only to have a drop of water from a bridge splash on the mouth piece. Ah well. I still wasn't ready to leave. I went to 5th Avenue and walked from 101st to 56th. I passed Gucci, Prada, Bergdoff Goodman, Louis Vuitton - ah, paradise. Someday. Someday, I'll be able to afford that.

By 5:30 I realized that I still had a long train ride and moderate drive home. I got a cab to Penn Station, got my ticket and rushed to the train. I'm starting to get good at it. I know how to read the monitors to know when my train is boarding, when it's leaving, what kind of train it is, and what track it's on. I was so tired on the way that I started to doze off. I finally got home around 7:30 and had dinner, watched some TV with my sister and brother-in-law and now I'm ready for bed.

It's too early to tell, but I think I like it. I like the feeling on New York - the people, the attitude, the variety and diversity. I am so lucky to have a place to live in New Jersey, but I'm really looking forward to moving to the Upper East Side and being on my own.

Well, this was just my first day. I can't wait for the adventure to come...