Holy Cow! Where Have I Been?

It's been quite some time since I've posted to this page and that changes today. The past two years have been quite eventful as the company I worked for back in early 2006 closed the doors on its Raleigh operations and moved me up to the prestigious (read: dump) New York offices. I was with them until August 2007 when financial trouble struck again and there were talks of another company coming in to take over. So, I found a new job and was immediately looking again come October, I hated it so much. Unfortunately, if there's one thing that I'm lousy at, it's playing the corporate game (even though it was a very small company, go figure) and they knew I was unhappy, so at the end of January this year, we...shall we say...parted ways. After unsuccessfully looking for a job during Black History Month, I spent March packing up my apartment for a return engagement in Raleigh, since my lease was up and Uncle Sam doesn't provide enough scratch to cover New York rent, which probably explains their massive homeless problem. The story of the move will be documented in full Technicolor detail in a later post, but suffice to say, I made it back relatively unscathed. So now, I'm right back where I was when I started this blog, so it seemed like the perfect time to start it up again.

So, to answer the question in the title, I was in New York. I lived in Astoria (Queens) and worked in Manhattan. New York is a fantastic place to visit and any chance I have to get up there, I'll jump at it, but living there was only cool for the first year at most. The city really wore on me, especially being from the suburbs and not a city guy at all. I think I adjusted quite well to the change, but I started to miss the perks of living in the suburbs like Target and driving. The subway, a fun adventure the first few months living there, rapidly devolved into a major hassle for someone who doesn't like getting sick. Also, I'm not the biggest fan of people in general, so I picked the perfect city to move to (he said sarcastically). There are just so many people in New York and they consistently like to get in your way wherever you go. Even though I was used to driving everywhere in every other location I've lived, I didn't mind walking everywhere in the city, but when you have to lug groceries home or anything over five pounds to...anywhere in the city, walking becomes a real pain in the ass. As time wore on, there were a lot more cons to living in the city than pros, so it helped in my decision to leave greatly, but it was still bittersweet as I was not really able to leave on my own terms. I was forced to leave and that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Now, I don't want to paint the picture that it totally sucks living in New York, because it doesn't. There is always something to do (if you can afford it) and that's a major perk. I will miss being able to see limited release movies whenever I want to as well as all the bands I like, as New York is more of a must stop for most tours than Raleigh/Durham. Also, a lot of my college and high school friends live in the area and it was great to be amongst them again for the two years I lived up there. I was sad to leave them all behind again, but at least now I know I'll have places to crash when I do visit. And one last thing I will miss about New York are all the absolutely gorgeous women who populate the city. Now, Raleigh has it share of pretty girls, but when I walked around New York, I would invariably see "the hottest girl I've ever seen" several times a day and the odds are pretty good that I won't be running into Natalie Portman down here like I did outside my office in Chelsea. *sigh*

All in all, though, I'm happy with the move. Practically my entire family has relocated here from New Jersey and it's good to be amongst them again. Also, I missed my Raleigh friends a lot when I was up north, so it's good to see them again. It seems that wherever I go, I'm missing someone. Every time I move I imagine the perfect place to move to and it's a warm place with great scenery and a teleportation device so that I can go back and forth to see my friends. Anyhoo, if anybody knows anyone who's hiring, let me know. I need a fucking job.