The City Doesn't Always Smile

     I was in a crabby patty mood today. That is the best and most concise summation of my day, but I wouldn't waste anyone's time by merely posting that single sentence, so I'll elaborate.


     I have a sinus infection, and it's a sinus infection with a vengeance. It started Sunday I think with just a few rounds of sneezes and itchy tongue and stuff, but it pounced on my like a lion yesterday. I woke up in the middle of the night because I couldn't even breath, and trying to sleep with my mouth open wasn't an open. Lol and god, that's so gross! Hahahaha, thinking of someone like knocked out with their mouth open is hilarious because its so...just like, ...yuck! lol anyway. The congestion subsided enough for me to eventually fall back asleep, and then this morning, against my originally plans, I woke up on snooze control. I opened my eyes for probably the 8th time and saw that my clock said 11:11am..and no, I didn't make a wish. Outloud I said, "huuuuh?!?!" Picture how Tim Allen on Home Improvement used to say it, or how Nelly and the St. Lunatics start off the song "E.I.," or the sound Scooby Doo makes when he's suddenly perplexed. Haha, I made a sound that was a combination of those three when I saw what time it was. So I had to rush. Terrible way to start the day.

   Then, in addition to my sinus infection, I'm all hormonal and stuff, so that just exponentiates any negative feelings that I had. And at one point today, I became really overwhelmed at work. I had to manually ingest some mini-dv tapes of Huma Abedin (Weiner's wife) because a producer in DC saw I'd ordered the tapes and wanted to use it for a piece, blah blah. This story is full of jargon. Point is, there was a moment when I became so overwhelmed and got really anxious and had to just abort the situation, and come back to it later. It was more emotion added to what I'd already been feeling, and I hate not knowing what I'm doing. So I went and squirted a few tears. WAHH. 

Tuesday's Words of Wisdom

    Luckily, as usual, my team of people were there to comfort me when I took a break; mom, and my ace-boon-coons Rian and Megan. They helped straighten me out. And today I guess Megan was under similar stresses as she moved into her apartment in Atlanta, so we could bond over that. She sent me a text that I think captured the essence of the moment almost to a tee. 

Times Square in the distance

    Then, a few hours later, when I was done with work, instead of getting right on the subway and heading home, I just walked for a while. It's a crisp summery night tonight, and I need to do more exploring of the city, so I just walked. Granted, I was walking in familiar territory, but walking none the less. I walked 16 blocks to 50th and 8th Ave, passing the park and Columbus Circle on my way. For the first portion of the walk, I was on Central Park West and whenever I'm on that street I think of Thanksgiving 2010. I missed Turkey Day with my family last year because I had to work at the station and we had live feed from the Macy's Day Parade. That was about a week and a half after my mom and I were in the city for a career workshop I'd gone to, and I remember talked to the morning anchor at that time Michelle Linn about it. Once we'd finished the morning show and before GMA cut-ins, I remember the live feed being on the big monitor in the studio and saying to Michelle, "Ugh, I want to be there so bad." At this point, I'd already fallen in love with the city and was determined to return. And all she said was, "You will. Don't worry." But she didn't say it in a dismissive kind of way at all, just more of a guarantee, and I remember thinking like, wow, she's got some faith in me. 

Columbus Circle

  Thinking back to that morning and walking down block after block in the hustle and bustle of the city, I couldn't be crabby pants anymore. At the end of the day, I'm in New York City with the internship of a lifetime, doing exactly what I set out to do. And I'd be an ungrateful sonuvagun to spend any moment of it upset.