By Beauty Damned

It's-ah-Happenin'

Our move to the new office is complete. I have managed to unpack almost every single box that was placed at my desk with the exception of one that will require a few hours of undivided attention. My boss's office is a different story. He has box upon box of redweld upon redweld that need to be attended to. That is going to have to be a joint effort between he and I. Last week was our first in the new office and it took everything I had to focus on one task at a time and take each in stride without becoming distracted and bogged down by the thoughts about how much was left to be done. Of course that anxiety was combined with uncertainty about the new environment. Our old office was relatively small compared to this one. The new floor is huge. It now takes five minutes just to get to the bathroom where before it took one minute. I feel like I've gotten a great deal of exercise since we arrived, from walking all over the godforsaken floor a thousand times not to mention the trek up stairs and escalators and elevators and across all the sprawling lobbies and concourses on the way from the train to my office. For the first two days I felt persistently lost because of the new labyrinth, always ending up on the opposite side of the floor from where I wanted to be, having no idea where I went wrong. How did I get here? My head was spinning from walking in circles.

I have gone from working on the east side of midtown in a *partly* residential neighborhood (despite being across from the "terrorist targeted" Citicorp building and only a few steps from mass commerce - it was really only "residential" compared to where we are now) to working directly above one of the busiest places in the country: Grand Central Station. It makes our old neighborhood look like the suburbs. I have never worked in an area this busy in my entire life. The closest I've come to passing through such a congested location on foot on a daily basis was when I lived in New Jersey several years ago and commuted through the Port Authority daily. This is a zoo, teeming with frenetic energy and thousands of people every day.

Grand Central Station is a beautiful building, filled with hundreds of things to see and do. The Transit Museum is there, the shops and restaurants are totally worthy, and just standing in the middle of the Grand Concourse and tuning out the rest of the universe to look up at the incredible architecture and unique details of this amazing place is liable to provoke a great epiphany of some kind if you do it right.

I cross this room at least twice a day now. I was struck by the most profound feeling of awe that first evening after work last Tuesday when I descended the escalators into Grand Central during rush hour. When the floor of the concourse came into view I was stunned by how many people there were and how fast they were moving. It was like watching a scene on fast forward. It didn't even look real to me. My heart sprung into my throat for a second. I felt suddenly as if this was my first day in New York all over again. I'll never forget that feeling of my first first day more than four years ago. Trying to maintain my confidence and headstrong stride amidst a world so fast, buildings that were inconceivably taller and stronger than me and people who didn't seem to be watching out for anyone but themselves. (Of course, most buildings are taller than me, but when you live in a small town, you feel like you're on the scale. The first time in New York City, you feel like you've been knocked off the scale.) I adjusted rather quickly (I think), as I'm adjusting to my newest work environment too.

In one way I like it intensely. On another level I feel like it's exhausting just being there. I think that will subside after awhile. I like my new work space and I'm happy with the setup for the most part.

Got home tonight to find the World Party cd that I ordered in the mail. It's called "Bang!" and I've been waiting for it for weeks. Absolutely love it. I picked up a nice bottle of white wine on the way home so I'm just going to relax and listen to this cd a couple times and drink as much of the vino as strikes my fancy.

Posted by Maria at March 1, 2005 07:32 PM | TrackBack