new york

Studio session

Tonight, I attended a live taping of Studio 360, specifically this one, all about the universe and theoretical physics. It was a whole lot of fun.

Although it was certainly not this cold and snowy when I went into the studio.

Otherwise, it was a pretty uneventful day. I finished boxing up the files I didn’t get to on Friday’s clean-up day, and as a group we trekked over to Rockefeller Center for our group holiday photo. Two years ago, it was the tree in the lobby. Last year, it was one of the lions in front of the New York Public Library, a block away. At the rate we’re going, we may very well be taking the photo in another borough come next holiday season!

Of course, we’ll have moved offices by then, by I think my nonexistent point is still no less valid.

‘Tis the season

No big presentations to attend today, though we did have a quick team meeting — ostensibly to review the titles under contract and in production, but mostly just to plan the date for our group’s holiday lunch and photo.

Every year we go out to lunch as a group, separate from the office-wide holiday party, and every year we take a group photo that we send as a holiday card to our authors. It’s interesting to look back at those photos and see just how much our lineup has changed since I came on board in 2006, with people leaving for other jobs, going back to school, moving across country, et cetera. Last year, we branched out beyond the Christmas tree in reception and took the photo in front of the New York Public Library. This year, we’re going all-out New Yorker and heading to Rockefeller Center for the photo. That’s not exactly far, though it’s not one block away like the Library, and I wonder if we’re not underestimating the distance in what’s very quickly become a very cold city. (Sure, low 30’s and 40’s are nothing to some of you, but I really sort of wished I’d worn a hat to work today.) And while there was maybe some concern that taking a holiday photo on December 13th was too soon, considering how early Hanukkah is this year — tonight’s the second night — we’re probably safely splitting the difference between that and Christmas, Kwanzaa, et al. And considering that most of us are going to be out the entire last week of December — and a couple, myself included, the entire last two weeks — we didn’t have a lot of other days to choose from.

I have to admit, I skipped the tree lighting in the reception area, despite the lure of eggnog and homemade cookies, and despite the fact that our team meeting ended in plenty of time to attend. I’m not a grinch, not by any means. I’ve gone on record to say I think it’s way too soon for houses decked out in lights and nothing but an endless cycle of carols on the radio — to say nothing of the electrical cost of the former, or the real mediocrity of a lot of the latter. And I definitely think it was too early right after — or before Thanksgiving. But I like Christmas decorations, and Christmas songs, and I like holidays in general. I just like celebrating them, you know, around the holiday season. But I mostly didn’t attend the tree lighting (or, rather, switching-on) because it crams about a hundred or more people into a space that maybe comfortably holds ten.

Maybe next year, when we’ve moved into our shiny new offices. I hear the cookies were really quite good.

Election Night Special

Headed back downtown at lunchtime this afternoon, this time finding the place I was looking for, no problem. It’s amazing what happens when you turn the right way instead of the wrong.

Otherwise, it was a pretty uneventful day, even what with it being Election Day here and everything. This year, they replaced the old voting machines, which I think were already old when representational democracy was first kicking around as a human idea, with a new paper ballot that’s then scanned into a machine. It felt simultaneously high-tech and very low-tech. But it couldn’t have taken, all told, more than five minutes.

I haven’t really been paying attention to the election results this evening, electing instead for a little calm, but I’ll admit to taking a little delight (or maybe just relief) at some of the Tea Party losses this evening. Although maybe that’s just because I know I have to steel myself to prepare for their wins. In New York, we have some important races this year, including for our new governor, but I don’t think Democrat victories were too surprising there.

And now, as I prepare for bed, allow me to leave you with Monty Python‘s “Election Night Special.”

That was Monday

Today was Monday. Beyond that, I don’t have much to say about it.

Okay, okay. At lunch time, I tried to run a little errand downtown, near City Hall and Wall Street. But I don’t know that area well at all, so even though it’s a pretty straightforward subway ride, I didn’t find the store I was looking for in time and had to head back uptown. I guess I’ll have to try again tomorrow.

In other news, it’s suddenly gotten quite chilly here. A week ago it was almost like summer again, but now I think we’re barreling straight on into winter.

House on Haunted Hilton

I took the subway from Penn Station this morning, uptown to the Hilton, where I was helping out for a few hours at an adolescent psychiatry conference we were attending. I didn’t have too much trouble finding the hotel, only getting turned around a little when I first emerged on the street — something I seem incapable of not doing every time I take the subway. (Manhattan’s essentially a grid of uptown/downtown, east side/west side, but I have a lousy sense of direction, thrown for a loop practically every time I wander underground.)

Then again, finding the hotel was a piece of cake compared to finding the exhibit hall where we were selling our books. That place is a maze.

A co-worker arrived to take my place a little before noon, and I headed back to the office, risking the subway a second time. And from there, the day progressed like pretty much any other. I sent some manuscripts out for review, received a review back, and had a perfectly ordinary afternoon.

Then this evening, I wandered downtown — walking this time — to join some friends for pizza and a live simulcast of House on Haunted Hill by the Rifftrax gang. They were joined by comedian Paul F. Tompkins for the movie and a couple of shorts (equally terrifying and hillarious). There was a brief moment of panic when I realized I’d forgotten to print my ticket — and the again, when the machine didn’t recognize either my credit or theater points card — but we got it sorted out at the ticket booth, and I didn’t have to head home in shame. (The theater was pretty crowded; I don’t know if it was sold out, but that’s a distinct possibility. That definitely happened at their first live show, where they had to show itbon two screens.)

Then I hopped on the subway — seriously, I usually don’t even have a MetroCard, much less one that gets used this much in a day — and only just made the train home. I believe the phrase “skin of my teeth” may come into play. And so my many thanks to the annoying (and possibly drunk) teens who were rushing to get on the same time…and therefore keeping the train from closing its doors for that second or two I needed to get on. (I wrote this on the train, which is more fun than writing it in Penn Station, waiting almost an hour for the next train, and not getting home until after midnight.)

I’m glad that tomorrow’s Friday. It’s been an oddly long week.