February--Second Month

Everything is great. Work is good and the people I work with are great. There are only four of us. The manager's name is Bill Collins; he was a good friend of Jim, my ex-boss. My co-worker is named Meera Kumar and she grew up in India. She handles the Financial News, which is the job I was supposed to take. However, a person left the Product News manager position and I took it in order to make the transition easier. Hopefully in a year I can start the Financial News Manager job. The last person in the office is the administrative assistant. She is Puerto Rican and about 25 years old. She is a nice but seems like she can be really mean if you cross her.

My apartment is in order. However, I still have to work on the bedroom to try and squeeze out more room. I will take pictures soon and place them on the yahoo website. I find that it is easier to post them there so everyone can see them. I hope you all visit it.

The weather is getting better. The last couple of days have been warmer but it rained all day Friday. The good thing about it was that it helped melt a lot of the “black” snow and wash away all the salt—used to melt the snow in the streets. “Black” snow is the term used for the dirty snow. With all the cars and all the people, the white snow gets dirty very fast.

With the warmer weather, I have also started exploring my surroundings more. Today I walked through Madison Ave. and Lexington Ave., which is where most of the expensive stores like Bloomingdale’s are located. It was good to be out. The fresh air and walking did me good.

I realize that I am still adjusting. In California, I had my life routines. Here I am still developing them. For instance, the other day I locked myself out of my apartment. It happened late one night when I went to throw out my trash. My door closes by itself so before I realized I had not “unlocked” the doorknob lock, the door closed and I was left out in the hall feeling like a loser—locked door, no keys. Unluckily, my neighbor let me use her phone to call the superintendent, who has a spare key. He came over but was not happy at all.

I am also adjusting to having more time on my hands. Without having to commute like in CA, I have at least an extra three hours per day. I have been using the time mostly to read and send emails to friends, but also to watch TV. Since I pay for cable, I just feel I should watch it.