queens_bar

Originally uploaded by FunCupcake.

It’s over! People! My 20+ hour a week commute to White Plains is over! Our product development office has moved into Manhattan! So after spending 480 hours commuting in the past 6 months, which translates into spending 20 full (24-hour) days commuting, I’m done. Sure, maybe we’ll go back for a meeting here or there, but our home base is now a mere 25 minutes from my subway stop here in Queens. I will take the 7 Subway straight to work. No bus, no Grand Central, no commuter train. While running through Grand Central every morning had it’s certain allure, really it translated to a rat race and if I never have another person shove me out of the way or step on my shoe in that place, I will be happy.

I will save over $300 and 80 hours a month. I feel like I just moved to NYC today, even though I moved 8 months ago and have actually lived in NYC for 11 months total, counting last summer. So last night I went out and got drunk. I celebrated. We packed all day at work, went out with the combined Manhattan and White Plain team for margaritas, and then I met Pilar and Stacy and had $3 beers into the a.m., right here in Queens at a little bar with an open mic night. It was pretty much exactly what I needed to do. To give an outlet for 6 months of frustration, impatience, anxiety, and stress to leave my being. I’ve never had such a happy hangover, signifying something so exhausting being so over. Okay well maybe after I finished college finally after 10 years, I had a nice hangover too. But anyways.

This is the beginning of the rest of my life in NYC, the life I really moved here to live, and now I can begin! What will I do now that I don’t have my “20-hour a week part-time job” of commuting? I’ll continue to work full time, but now I can make plans in the evening. Take advantage of all the classes at any of the fabulous schools, meet friends, take Yoga, go the bank, dry cleaners, drug store, or shoe repair after work or… even on my lunch break! I can cook! I can grocery shop! I can knit, sew, draw, and enjoy life. No more running after a bus that almost always makes us miss our train back to Manhattan. No leaving work at 8:00 p.m. only to get home at 10:30 p.m, too exhausted to cook, and after much has closed around us. We can sleep in an extra hour in the morning, and gain several more hours of our evenings.

And no more sad, suburban cafeteria staff shoving wilted prepared salads or salty meaty school-style hot dishes or stale sandwiches in our face. Now we can eat lunch… NYC-style! Everyone knows that one of the best things about NYC is the wide range of food available, at any price, for any taste in any neighborhood at any time. And the fashion… just oozing off the sidewalks, styles that you could never find in any suburban landscape. Inspirational style. I mean jeez, our office is across the street from Parsons! You guys watch Project Runway, you know what the people look like walking around the fashion district! Crazy, cool, ridiculous, over the top, and interesting. Hey. I used to get sad watching movies filmed in NYC, because I would be jealous of people who had access to the life everyday. Even though I live here, I really haven’t been living here much, because of my work situation.

So. Needless to say I am beyond excited, and feel like I can and will be sharing more about my life with you than ever before, because folks, I will have one now on a regular basis! Please raise your glass with me and celebrate this amazing moment. But, uh, I think I’ll stick to drinking water today in my glass. Make that a water with Emergen-cee. I’m a bit parched. But it was worth it…

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 17th, 2006 at 11:26 pm and is filed under New York City, Out on the Town. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.