Another Chilly Morning

It is currently seven degrees (factoring in wind chill) in New York right now. A beautiful sunny day, clear skies, a little snow on the ground, everything shiny after last week's storm. And of course I forgot my scarf. Well, not really forgot. After yesterday ( a beautiful day) I thought I could handle today without a scarf, seeing as I arrived home last night in a sweat. Unfortunately I was wrong about that. Today I stepped out and literally gasped like a fish out of water.

One of the lawyers I used to work for told me a story about how in Chicago, people literally have to suck in their breath little by little in order for their lungs to get used to breathing such cold air. Apparently it's essentially the same thing here. I sucked in air little by little until I was breathing normally by the time I reached the end of my block. No wonder I woke up with a feeling of dread and desire to stay in bed instead of going to work. Briefly I considered calling in sick (something I'm proud to say I haven't done yet) but then realized that even if I did call in sick, all the work I have to get done this week would still be waiting for me tomorrow. An interestng concept compared to that of school, really. Nothing changes day to day. Teachers aren't there to give extensions or reexplain how your life is supposed to go.

More than ever, I am beginning to relate to "Office Space". Originally I found it amusing and we used to watch it on a regular basis while drinking and saying that was never going to be us. But for most of us, that will be us, at least for a little while out of college. I have heard from several different sources that your first job should generally not last more than a couple of years. Probably because it's often not as career oriented as bill paying. Not if you're a teacher or nurse or something in that field, but for the rest of us who have liberal arts degrees and are determined not to be suckered into the large check world of finance and business. So I have been here about 5 months and am already considering where I would like to go next. I was lucky, in that I found a job in a career I wanted (or at least thought I wanted) and have been able to learn a ton from this job while working incredibly hard on top of trying not to lose all the education that my parents spent so much money on.

Yes, I watch too many Friends and Seinfeld reruns.

So as the weather gets chilly and i have a harder time getting up in the morning to go to work, I hope I can keep in mind that I'm not in a cubicle, that people actually know my name and entrust me with responsibility, and that I'm working towards climbing up that ladder and claiming a place for myself in this freezing cold, gorgeous city.