God, life is great!

Hi all - blogging is fun. Well, it's especially fun if you have so many cool things to tell about - and that's what my subject means! This place is awesome - I am so lucky to have this opportunity and it just makes me happy. Plainly happy :-). Except for the fact that my shin really hurts from all the walking - but that's sorta good too :-).

So I left off yesterday afternoon I believe. Wow, it seems like longer - when you pack a lot into a day, I guess that's what happens. So I sojourned out around 4pm yesterday and took the subway up to Harlem for some fun. Just kidding - I went to Harlem to check out how to catch the train and get a ticket. I felt ok - as long as the sun's up I think it's ok. Definitely felt like a minority, and there were a lot of "soul food" restaurants. Anyway - walked down to the park and went to a free concert by the Harlem Blues and Jazz band - wow, that was awesome. These guys know their stuff - oldie's who've played with some greats. The wonderful saxophonist was 92 years old! Aah, sweet music to a backdrop of a beautiful pond with green trees everywhere. So the band included a keyboardist, a bass player, the saxophonist I said, a drummer, a singer (the only female), and another drummer who did bongos and xylophones and odd percussion. Wow. Good music. And the lady only sang 2 songs. But she was great - lots of "Oohs". Her 2nd song was giving advice to the ladies - When you are young, you get an old man who has money and knows how to give you lovin' . When you are old (over 42 in her book), you get a young man that takes your money and shows you how life is fun :-). She even picked out hot men in the audience and made them show their abs during the song! Silly. So that was great fun. Then I went to another section of the park and saw Shakespeare in the park - Love's Labour Lost! Also free. It was so fun - the gimmick was that each scene moved. So the audience would sit on the grass somewhere and watch a scene, then have to run to another hillock and sit to watch the next scene. The actors were really good and expressive - very funny and entertaining! It took more than 2 hours to see the whole play!

Interjection - go Mets! I'm watching the game - top of the 10th! - thinking of you Nick.

So Monday is today. Didn't get much sleep - had to get up a little before 6am - ugh!! First day at IBM. Tired. Anyway, this is the most boring part of my time here thus far. Well, it was ok. I took the subway then walked, then the train, then a van shuttle - yes it took awhile. Not too bad though. The annoying part was that we were supposed to get there at 8:30 sharp and nothing happened until 9:30! I could've slept. But I made a friend that also lives in the city and she hooked me up with some people that carpool out to work (1/2 hour instead of an hour and 15 minutes on public transit). So that'll be cool. Went through orientation - thought I'd die of boredom during the chemical hazards and safety guy. Free lunch, transport to my actual building, meeting my mentor, setting up accounts, etc. Nothing big. Except free coffee on Mondays :-). I had this thought today that being around these people and this computer environment (and I have to admit the nerdiness, the grayness) sorta depresses me. It zaps my energy instead of the opposite. Recently I've hung out with Toni's friends (psychologists), and Tara's friends (all businessy people), and they seem infinitely more interesting than people in my field. Maybe it's because I talked to them in a more social setting, but still. I'm not going to do anything about this right now or anything - I'm good at computer science and it's a good career. But I'm really not sure it makes me happy just in and of itself. I get my juices from interacting with people. Weird that I just now figured that out... 27 years.

Anyway - got home and went running in the park again - my favorite!! You have no idea - that totally cheered me up. The weather has been beautiful, and maybe the endorphines helped. But seriously - running around the trail (flat) around the reservoir staring at the gorgeous NY skyline and the shining orange setting sun just made me happy. (And I thought of running with you Carol and Negin around Town Lake!) Felt great! This is what it's about - that and on the way home (my 1/2 mile walk) stopping at a nice Mexican place to pick up tasty take-out. Oh the opportunities here and all within walking distance! Just walking makes me happy here :-).

So another good day - and it's now time for bed! Hope research is as good as home life :-).