see as i saw

Two mornings with 3:30am wake-up calls in the same makes for a tired girl.  The end of the month, with the end of the year approaching, was in imperfect alignment with my desire to do nothing but pass out for a nice winter's nap.  So my friends for the day were coffee and music.

And at some point today, I managed to realize that tomorrow is December.  I have no idea what I did in November or how it disappeared so quickly.  Honestly, I always thought my parents were being melodramatic when I was younger and they'd say something about how quickly time passes.  That was back in the day when the distance to Christmas break always seemed interminable.

The arrival of December also means that I'm down to one month remaining in this blog-a-day mission that I set in the waning days of 2011.  I've been thinking about how I want to proceed when the calendar flips to 2013.  Although there's no definitive course, the daily photo and writing requirements are taxing at times.  I can virtually guarantee that this blog won't continue to be daily. Perhaps instead of trying to force inspiration daily, I'll post when inspiration (visual or rhetoric) strikes.

I would say that I shouldn't worry about it too much, because I have time.  But I've already covered that.  Time flies.

First day in the Chicago office and this is where it begins to feel like I work for a start-up.  Three guys, a girl, and a mini fridge.  Before I even had my computer open, I was rallying to get a Keurig.  That request has been made to the powers that be (although I'm not entirely sure who "they" are).

An hour after my arrival, I was waiting on keys to both the office and the women's restroom.  It's a tenuous wait realizing that, should nature call, your best options are to hope another woman is heading in that direction (keep in mind that I only work with men) or heading down the block to Cosi.

In what was possibly a modern day miracle, by lunch time I had keys, a shelf and a wall installed at my desk, and had accomplished some real work.  Granted, a shipping error meant that I was still missing a monitor, keyboard and mouse, but there was Fresca in the fridge as a reparation.

I may have returned to the working world, but it feels nothing like the office routine that I've cycled through in the past.  And that seems to be a good thing.  It's only been one day in my new Chicago digs, but instead of heading for a rut it feels like I'm getting into a groove.  There's somehow both a minor and a distinct difference between the two.

 Yes, I know, I've been a neglectful parent to this blog baby of mine.  Although I had the photo and the content idea all mentally mapped out, the actual execution just didn't come to fruition.  Can I be extended a pardon, though?  Based on extenuating circumstances, such as day three of a new job?


I'd like to see you learn about writing xpath, optimizing for CPCs, and figuring out where the permalink goes in the nano code...then coming "home" to your hotel room to blog.  Yeah, that's right.    And I may have, ahem, had other priorities.  Moving on.  So today is going to be a joint post, melding yesterday's topic with additional thoughts I ruminated on today.


Even though the majority of my hours in New York have been spent working, I'm still enjoying learning the little things about life here.  When I travel, I generally make an effort to put myself in a local's shoes instead of waltzing around from one tourist destination to the next.  If I wasn't living in a hotel, I think that my daily routine here might actually make me feel like a local.

To that end, I've actually been buying several of my dinners from the food bars at Whole Foods (conveniently located two blocks away).  The check-out lines are long during the evening commute hours, but space is limited.  So here's what I learned as I went along.

There are 30 registers, two rows of fifteen facing one another and separated by a single aisle.  There are three lines of customers, each assigned a color.  A monitor at the front of the line coordinates - blue, yellow, green.  When a register opens, the number flashes on the monitor within one of the colored boxes.  Whomever is in that line scuttles over to that register.  For some reason it feels like a game every time I do it.

And maybe it's the just the US Open coloring my opinions, but I'm kind of loving New York.  I never imagined it as a city I would be comfortable living in, but after even three days I'm starting to reconsider.  Today I walked home from work, down 5th Avenue, and walked to the north end of Madison Square Park.  Because in New York, they do things like set up a jumbo screen in the park with a feed of the US Open.  And people actually gather to watch it.  You know what else?  They're seriously engaged, applauding and cheering after points.

I'm not saying that it's time to head out of Chicago, but I'll be happy to spend more time in New York City - both during the remainder of my training period and in the future.