The Big News II

So, part two of the big news begins with moving day. Two weekends ago I started sleeping in New Jersey officially. A few days later all my stuff from Vegas arrived and I began the long, uphill march to being unpacked and semi-settled. Incidentally, the movers decided my first day of work would be an excellent time to deliver my stuff, on less than 12 hours notice no less! I couldn't see calling in sick on my first day, so I had to leave a key under the mat and trust the movers to do what they had to do with no supervision... ick. But, as you can see in the picture, everything seems to have made it here OK. Also, you can see my new couch and nifty new pop-up coffee table.

I like my place so far and after two weeks of work, I have a pretty solid handle on the commute. I have a first choice and a second choice train station, and have used each on random days. The first choice, South Orange Station, has a better selection of no-transfer-necessary trains to Manhattan and a lot of coffee and bagel joints right near the station in cute downtown South Orange. But, it also has basically no parking available in the morning. I am not the only one who likes it. I found the very last daily-pay parking spot on my first day of work.. and I had to be there at 7am to get it! Ladies and gentleman, my shift is 10am-6pm.. 7am is not gonna work for me.

Thus, my second choice has become my first choice lately.. This is the Mountain Station. It always has parking, is only about 5 minutes from my house, and even with a transfer it still only takes about 40 minutes to Penn Station. There is supposed to be a free shuttle bus to South Orange that stops right in front of my house, but this has been radically unreliable. I used it once to have my first completely car-free commute... but I actually kind of like having my destiny in my own hands. If I can park and ride, I will.

Someday soon I intend to document my entire commute for posterity. I will take pictures or video of every step of the process... from front door to train station to greeting the doorman at work. The newness of it all is making it fun for me so far. I am sorta like a real grown-up.. making my coffee, getting on the train, going to work, coming home tired. I feel like I should be wearing a trench coat and a fedora. It'll probably get old pretty quickly, but it's OK for now... I just need some good reading material for the trains.

The Big News

While I was on vacation in Florida I got an email on my Blackberry (still addicted) from the guy I had a job interview with the day before I left. He said he wanted to follow up with me on the phone, could he call at 3pm? I said sure. So, he called and offered me the job.. just like that, all-of-the-sudden, I found myself employed. I guess the dream had to end eventually.

But really, it is exciting to have something new to do everyday, and there is the small benefit of income... which is nice. The job is at the Paley Center for Media on 52nd St. in Manhattan. It is kinda a museum for TV and radio. I will be a "video technician". I have already worked a full week and so far my primary responsibility has been archiving old TV shows by putting them into the museum's computer system. So, I watch a lot of old TV.. I've seen everything from Martin and Lewis to The 1988 World Series (the one with the earthquake) to one of Elvis' first appearances on Ed Sullivan. So far, so good... I could think of worse jobs. This is a picture of my work station. Notice all the buttons I could press if I wanted to... impressive ain't it?

I am still ironing out the kinks in the whole commuting to work procedure.. but, I will detail this in the next installment of The Big News.

National Lampoon's Vacation

Last week I met my parents in Florida for a family vacation. We flew into Orlando, drove to Daytona, then to Melbourne, then to West Palm Beach, then back to Orlando. My dad is not Chevy Chase and we did not go to Walley World (because that doesn't really exist... disappointing isn't it?), but we did have a pretty good time.

First, we spent a week one night in Daytona... at least that's how it felt. It looks nice in the picture, but who knew it was so rundown and rednecky? I guess the fact that their two biggest attractions are Nascar Week and Bike Week should have tipped us off. But still, it is DAYTONA BEACH... sounds like something to see, doesn't it? It isn't.

So, we moved on the next morning, driving south along the east coast through Melbourne and eventually settling in West Palm Beach. West Palm was way nicer than Daytona, of course... and it felt like everyone from Jersey came with me. Lots of old tri-staters down there. We also learned that the higher the shrubs in front of a house, the more expensive that house is. There were a lot of high shrubs.

After soaking in South Florida for three nights, we headed back to Orlando for the last two nights of our trip. No Walley World, but we did go to Epcot, our old favorite, and I did, sorta, kinda... run over my mother's foot with the car. You see, I thought she was in the car. I was wrong. I assure you this was not intentional.. and not too funny at the time. But she's OK, bruised but not broken, and it's funny now. She was up and walking around Epcot again that afternoon.And that about does it for Kodish Florida Family Vacation '08. Maybe there will be a sequel soon.

A Festivus for the Rest of Us

This Sunday I wandered out of my apartment in Queens, not at all sure what I was going to do. I figured I'd hop the train to Manhattan, get some lunch, and do some aimless roaming. To my surprise I found a bustling street fair right outside my door... Screw Manhattan, this was Queens baby!

Of course, on further inspection, it wasn't really all that exciting. More like a flea market with overpriced carnival food... not that that stopped me from indulging my taste for all things deep fried. But, I walked around for a half hour and decided I had gotten the picture... time to get on that train.

So, I arrive in Manhattan and what do I find? Two more street fairs! One was nearly identical to the one in Queens, only bigger and on Madison Avenue. The other was a French Bastille Day food festival. It was a Sunday of street fairs in New York... my Chuck's (and my stomach) got a work out.

Hanging my Hat

If you haven't heard, I've found a place to call home. It is a one bedroom apartment in New Jersey... much cheaper than anything I could find in New York and still only 25 minutes to Manhattan. It is in a four family house on a tree-lined residential street. On the left is the outside of the house, below is my kitchen. It doesn't look like much on the inside yet, but I like it and you can click on the link to the right to see more pictures.

On Saturday I got the keys and had cable, phone, and internet installed... now all I need is a TV, a phone, and a computer! Well, I have a computer, but I won't actually start sleeping there until I get some more furniture and get all my stuff moved over from Queens. The rest of my stuff from Vegas probably won't get here until early August... hopefully...maybe. Movers can pretty much do whatever they want... they got your stuff, you want your stuff, what can you do?

I also went ahead and got a car to get around the Jersey 'burbs. She's a 1998 Mazda 626, found on Craigslist. Last time I drove a 626 it was totaled... through no fault of my own, mind you. But let's hope that doesn't happen again.

All in all, a busy couple weeks getting all these ducks in a row. I am happy to have a place to hang my hat.

The AC

So, on the Fourth of July weekend, I drove down to Atlantic City, as I had been threatening to do since I began this blog. It took about two and a half hours on the Garden State Parkway and I was there.. in the East Coast mecca of degenerate gamblers. I happily joined in, even though it's really just a third rate Vegas. Still, it was fun to get back to the poker tables.

It was not fun to pay for parking. Maybe if you're not from Vegas you don't understand my outrage... parking is always free in Vegas. Why put up any barriers between a gambler and your casino? On the other hand, they know $5 is probably not gonna stop a determined gambler from going to their casino, so why not charge? Still, I didn't appreciate the extra $20 or so that I had to spend.

I got myself a souvenir...

His bowels coiled like a serpent, ready to strike...

It's July 4th and that means competitive eating. At least, it does if you are a crazy person that enjoys cramming upwards of 60 Nathan's Famous hot dogs down your throat in 10 minutes. The title of this post is taken from the description given one of the competitors by the MC at the annual event, which I witnessed first hand on Coney Island. The MC also claimed we were seeing the "greatest athletes in the world" perform... I doubt that. Nevertheless, it was kinda fun and quite the spectacle.

It ended in a tie at 59 hot dogs and buns, between Takeru Kobayashi, the famously small Japanese champ from years past, and Joey Chestnut, the American defending champ. Their people agreed to an "eat-off" to decide things... the first such tiebreaker in the history of this storied competition. These two great champions of eating would each eat 5 more dogs, whoever got them down the quickest wins. It was close, but ultimately the American came out on top once again to retain his crown. The video above documents this historic occasion from my vantage point.. can't see much, but the crowd was excited. Happy 4th of July!

P.S. I rode the Cyclone this time... It doesn't look that bad from there does it?