Well, it's raining here, but the good news is that I can tell you for sure that it's raining because I have my own office with a window. The deal is, there were two open spaces: a cubicle near Jessica [?] and this nice empty office with a comfy chair and its own thermostat. Ashley [?] and I figured that we could switch off for fairness's sake. and she volunteered to take the cubicle first. I think this was mostly because she knows by now that I have difficulty making decisions and not volunteering would probably result in me saying "eh, I don't care either way" about fifty million times.

Today was our first day of work. Yesterday Jessica took us on a little tour of the area around where we work-- between the Flatiron area and Chelsea-- which was really cool. We have an Au Bon Pain (one of my favorite restaurants at home) right across the street. I must admit that I'm a teensy bit worried, because yesterday I discovered that I've gained twenty pounds! I've never watched what I ate before in my life, not for the sake of cosmetics anyway (so being a veggie doesn't count), but then again, I've never gained a significant amount of weight before. I'm not too stressed out, because I think it's sort of normal at my age, but it was still a little alarming. Oh well. Probably all that heavy Virginia food, plus sitting at a desk all day. We all know I saw it coming (see this entry).

Anyway, our tour was really fun. We walked a lot, ate at two cool restaurants, and I bought an awesome brown messenger bag for eleven dollars! I'm telling you, this bag and I were made for each other, so much so that Ashley said that once I put it on, she couldn't picture me without it. The bag is now home to two buttons. One says "some things were never meant to be recycled" and has Bush's face on it (I got it from the NPR lecture with the League of Conservation Voters lady) and the other says "New York City STRAND 8 Miles of Books" and I got it at the Strand... maybe just Strand... I dunno. Anyway it's a really cool used book store a few blocks away and I also bought three books for a dollar each. I'll certainly be returning because they have these dollar books on carts outside every day. Awesomeness incarnate.

New York feels a lot more like home, just in terms of landscape and superficial things like that, although I should note that I've had terrible allergies lately. I don't know if this is from being in a new place, much of which is dusty because the normal occupant of our room has been gone for a while. Things were better today than yesterday, and I think this may be because Ashley and I washed everything and swept. Fingers crossed.

Speaking of Ashley, I adore her. She's so sweet and thoughtful and funny and smart and I'm so lucky to have her be my partner in all this. I'll always know I'll have a friend in Hampton, Virginia.

Oh, man, you guys... this bag is so dope. Honestly.