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Pretty cool digs. Nice people. Everyone seems like they know their shit. I’ll give a more in depth breakdown after I digest all the info. In the meantime, here are some pix of my walk/to from the AARF office.

Also, this past Sunday in the NYTimes, they published an article on our office. Here is the article: http://tinyurl.com/37kkke

Here are a few images from the article:

Here are some images from my Apt in Harlem. Gay cleanliness inside, projects outside.

So today I started preparing for my first day of work.  Went to the company website and did some reading and research.  I confirmed my arrival time at the office and found out I have orientation at 9am till 11ish.  Last night Wali and I did a dry run of my train ride into work.  Not bad at all.  Jump on the 6 train, transfer on 42nd to the S train, and them I’m 1 block from work.  Roughly a 30-35 minute commute!

I also ironed all my work shirts and completed my unpacking.  Everything is now in the dresser or hanging in the closet.  Getting used to staying here, now I just have to get used to my surroundings and the city.  Tomorrow I’ll be doing some errands with Jenn.  Groceries, household supplies, etc.

In regards to food, I ordered some fresh sandwiches from a local joint and it was pretty decent.  Trying to find all my food places.  Tomorrow I’ll try something new.  My goal is to keep trying new things until I have a good collections of good places to eat.

Ok, the chinese food here really sucks! I ordered some orange chicken. I mean, come on, can you really fuck that up? well, it tasted like overcooked orange peel. And I asked for pan fried noodles. I got those crispy wonton type of noodles that are appetizers, with the sweet and sour sauce. Finally I ordered some chinese broccoli. i get some regular american broccoli in some brown sauce. Boy do I miss the chinese food in LA. Full House I love you. Good thing we had that before I left LA.

So I took the safe route for lunch today. Ordered some sandwiches. BLT, and a grilled cheese. I hope they don’t fuck that up here either. We’ll see in about 20 mins.

Jenn introduced me to this wonderful website for getting food in your hood. http://www.menupages.com/restaurants.asp?areaid=31

You get to pick your area of Manhattan and narrow your search by the type of food, price, meal, etc. And it has all the menus on here!

So I finally made it. Its about 1am here in NY. I’m staying in east Harlem (i think). Its an unusual area: projects mixed in with some nice brownstone buildings. I’m staying in a new building (at least newly renovated) and the apt that I’m in is really,really, nice. I met the guy who I’m renting from, his name is Patxy. My roommate’s name is Okan. They are both really nice and cool. The place is super clean, nicely decorated. Pretty cool digs. Outside is a different story. I’ll see what it looks like in the day time. Hopefully its not as sketch as it looks right now.

Well, the plane ride totally sucked. We had to fly over some thunderstorms, so it was a bumpy ride. I really hate flying. Plus, the guy to my left was big and kept invading my elbow room. The girl to my right was ok, but she had really bad B.O. Not looking forward to flying again next week. Looks like I’m going to sleep in and probably spend the whole day tomorrow inside. I’ll be unpacking, resting, looking at maps, and ordering some food in. I think I’m going out Friday night with Wali. He has a friend coming into town so I think we’ll be drinking or something.

Saturday, Jenn is going to take me out to take care of some errands and check out the town. I think we’re also going to try to subway to work so that come monday, I know where to go. I am very grateful for Wali and Jenn’s help. Its a little scary as is, and without them I’d be really lost.

We just came back from Dinosaur BBQ in Harlem. Not bad. I didn’t think there would be good BBQ out here, but this place was decent.

Here is me and my room.  I know I looked really fucking tired here, but I’ve been up since 7am.

so…looks like the thunderstorms in NY are messing things up.  im stuck here at the burbank airport for 2 more hours.  4 bucks for wifi to pass time.  good start to this trip!  funny thing, renee bauer from the cannery is on my flight too!  so weird.  it was nice talking to her.  caught up on what shes been up to and what i’m going to be up to.  killed an hour too!  looks like i have to cancel dinner reservations in harlem.  jennifer (joanne’s cuz) made plans for us to eat at this bbq joint near the place i’m staying at but they close at 11.  i don’t believe we’ll get there in time because of the delay.  guess i’ll be hungry when i get to nyc.  ray’s pizza stays open late, so hopefully there is one near my place.  don’t feel like eating before the flight cuz i don’t trust my stomach.  lol! plus i heard that we might be going through some major turbulence.  great stuff.  i hate flying, and now i hate it even more.  lucky me, i get to get back on a plane in about a week!

To everyone who has contact me, thanks for all the good wishes and luck.  You all have said some touching things.  It really helps with everything that is going on.  I’m in the middle of packing still.  I probably won’t finish until 3 am.  Lots to do.  Flight is at 1040am out of Burbank.  I hope to get a little sleep tonight.  At least I’ll have 5+ hrs on the plane to sleep.  Just gave the kids another goodnight kiss. I a really going to miss them.  Till tomorrow.

Well, today is my last day.  Did some final grocery shopping for the family, going to have lunch with JoAnne, going to visit my Mom and Dad, and then going to visit Trina and her kids.  Man, I’m going to miss this ‘lil’ town!  So, I’m going be packing – enough stuff for 2 months.  I’ll be back April 13-17 and June 7-11 to move the rest of the family.  Thats when all the heavy packing, trashing, etc is going to happen.  I hope the family will be fine without me here.  Luckily i bought a MBP and got them a webcam for my g5 workstation, and we’ll be web video chatting everyday.  At least i get to see the kids faces and hear their voices.

I also bought a moleskin notebook/sketchbook.  i’ll try to keep track of my experiences and ideas in there. Hopefully i can fit everything into 2 suitcases and 2 carry on baggages.   we’ll find out tonight.  thanks to gib for the ride to the airport!