Location, Location, Location
One of the many appealing aspects about the new job is the significantly shorter commute, cutting at least 20 minutes off my old tip-of-Manhattan adventures on a good day; as much as 40 minutes when things really get bogged down (aka, a typical day!). I can now leave home as late as 8:15am and still walk into the office at 9am on the dot. It’s great for bad weather days, too, because, if I choose, I can be above-ground for a combined ONE BLOCK now that I can take the D-train, which is mere steps from my front door, and switch to the 1-train, which leaves me 2/3rds of a block from the office.
The food selection is a million times better; much more diverse, both culinarily (is that a word?) and financially. Better shopping, too, with Herald Square and Whole Foods both in walking distance, and Midtown Comics close enough to not require an extended lunch.
The office is on the same floor as a non-profit poetry organization I’ve worked with in the past, and in the midst of FIT’s campus, so the energy is noticeably lighter than the tourist and suit-heavy crowd downtown, perhaps best evidenced by the many skateboarders and the handwritten sign posted in one of the dorm windows: “I know we’re hot! Please don’t look in our window!”
Going home is a little sketchier than it used to be, as I’ll never get a seat and am likely to miss an occasional train due to overcrowding, but that’s a more than acceptable trade-off in light of everything else.
The office itself is laid-back and casual, which is good considering the first few days have been a whirlwind of activity as I try to digest everything, establish some integrated organizational systems (I do handle now what three people used to) and make the adjustment from being responsible for only one slice of the pie to being responsible for the whole pie. It’s akin to being a player/coach/assistant GM in a lot of ways, but it works for the control freak in me who plays best with others when I’m calling the shots.
Some jobs, you get an immediate gut feeling for whether or not it was a good move, and this one, so far, feels like the best move I’ve made since taking a pay cut to work for Poets & Writers so many years ago. Except, thankfully, without the pay cut this time!
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