Monday brings some firsts

Well, one, in particular. Today was my first day of work in the business that I have been elbowing my way into for a few years now. It is my first full time paid position (paid! slave wages, but it counts.) in this biz that is all spark and ingenuity one moment and dead as yesterday's used newspaper the next according to media friends and foes. That's right friends iiiiiiiiits journalism.

But it's also my first day of working in New York after being away from this city that I love. I was nervous, what with the commute, the fabulous ladies of fashion surrounding me at every turn and, well, the commute (listen, it can be pretty bad).

But that latent New York kick-it-and-go attitude sprung up in my like geyser once those subway doors opened and the rest of Greenpoint and I were trying to squeeze in. I strolled into the center of the train and never looked back.

Somehow my blood boiled enough to get me from one subway to another and back again at the end of the day, spits of rain and a sleepless night and all.

Now that I'm slightly more eased into working life and my outfit is already picked out for tomorrow, I'm hoping I can catch some Zzzzs so I can get up for a much-needed run in the morning. Because, oh yes, I'm still training for that marathon. I have four weeks to go from 7 miles to 26.2 so it's now or never.

I can only do things like, get a job, find an apartment, train for some sort of feat-o-strength all at once. Dog pile on L. It's all or nothing people, but it's nice to be doing something even when it's everything.

xoL

Namesake read

I'm a commuter now...actually, let me specify, I'm a driving commuter. Yup. I haven't done this since it was J$ and me in the Corolla (back in the 90s).

But it's kind of nice, you know, no major traff to contend with, I can hit up NPR there AND back and there are seat warmers.

In honor of my new commute, the instant road rage I feel and the singing-at-the-top-of-my-lungs I feel I'm allowed to do, I give you this awesome New Yorker article from 2007, aptly named: There and Back Again: The Soul of a Commuter, by Nick Paumgarten.

I expected it to be just a little read, it felt that way starting out, but it turns out its a fantastically entertaining investigative piece on the art and scarring pit falls of The Commute. Be it public trans, car pools or an endless landscape of bumpers, the commute is a sacred thorn in our side. It's funny, it's interesting, it keeps you reading paragraph after scrolling paragraph. This is damn good writing.

Just so I can get your tush tingly with excitement here are a few of my favorite lines:

"The driver's seat is a lonely place. People tend to behave in their cars as though they are alone in the room. Road rage is one symptom of this; on the street or on the train, people don't generally walk around calling each other assholes."

"You could drive to work without your pants on and no one would know."

"The smaller the triangle, the happier the human, as long as there is social interaction to be had. In that kind of life, you have a small refrigerator, because you can get to the store quickly and often. By this logic, the bigger the refrigerator, the lonelier the soul."

"Atlanta is perhaps the purest specimen of a vexed commuter town, a big-fridge paradise."

xoL