I have become one of them…….Entry for August 1, 2007

I will never forget the first day I started working in New York. I was petrified. When I went for my interview, I stood outside the building across the street and looked up at the window. Sure enough, there was my future boss looking at a transparency in the light of the window. I almost didn’t even go up there. I could get a job in New Jersey, I thought. New York is the king of large format graphics. These guys are gonna eat me up. I don’t know shit. This city is too crazy loud and dirty. Fear has been my closest friend my whole life. I compare it to going into the ocean to swim. BIG waves. COLD mysterious water. Jump in……or watch from the distance. It wasn’t easy. But I have worked my way ever so slowly to respect. They trust me now…most times with their biggest most complicated jobs. And now I know New York. The shortcuts, the best pizza, ….I know the street muscians, the homeless, the roughnecks, the tempo, I know the constant sound of sirens wailing, of firetrucks caught in traffic, cops on horses, blazing neon light shows, I have learned the complex subways, I have found treasures, gotten ripped off, was interviewd on the street for channel 4 news, have seen movies being made, undercover drug busts, and I got hit by an impatient taxi car. Once scared to walk through the endless mobs of people on the sidwalks…..I burst through them now. I know when the lights are gonna change green. I know how to curse….how to be confident…swagger through the concrete mazes like I own it. Get outta my way! Get off the phone! Pay a fuckin tention! No, I don’t have any change! Get a damn job! Come on….jump in! The water is freezing cold and the waves are monsters. Slowly…..I have become……………one of them.