7:36am - I wake up and check my e-mail. Today is the day - My first job interview in New York. I hit the shower, throw on my shirt and tie, hang out with Josh for a bit, take my Lithium, try to ignore the butterflies in my stomach, and head for the train station.
9:06am - As soon as the train pulls away from the station, I realize something isn't right. The butterflies aren't going away, I can barely stomach my morning Diet Coke and I'm starting to feel all the color fade from my face.
Me: (woozy) "Hey man, there are more B and Q trains coming behind this one, right?
Josh: "What the fuck are you talking about?"
Me: "The trains, there are more of them, right?"
Josh: "Uh, yeah."
Me: "Ok, I'm feeling sick. I'm gonna get off here. I'll call you later."
Josh: "You'll call?"
Me: "Yeah. I gotta go."
I get off the train three stops from where I started and immediately lean up against the wall with my back towards the tracks, and my head resting against the forearm that's against the wall. After a few minutes the dizziness and nausea pass. I let one train go by, and take hte one after that. As Josh was my guide for transferring to the F train to get me to Queens, I have ot fend for myself now.
I should explain that I'm ot claustrophobic, nor do I get nervous before interviews. I'm fairly certain that between feeling crappy for the past day or so, and having only recently started my normal medication regiment again, I felt some of the side effects. As far as that goes, the rest of the day was uneventful.
10:20am - Finding my connection to the F train in Manhattan was a breeze. I arrive in Forest Hills, Queens a little more than an hour and a half early for my interview, decide to find the building my interview is in and then go exploring. Forest Hills seems a bit more like small town than Prospect Park (Brooklyn) in that there are little shops along the street, it's not nearly as dirty, and the streets are tree lined. All the blues and greens stand out it all looks sort of quaint, I suppose. I find a produce stand, buya pear for breakfast and after walking around a bit, sit down and people watch.
11:30am - I find my interview, sign in and sit in teh waiting area. The Jet Blue team is running a bit behind schedule as my interview was scheduled for noon, and I only get started around 12:20. I meet Danny, the fourth Jet Blue recruiter I've spoken with in two months, who looks over my identification forms, resume and high school transcripts.
Danny gets started with my interview, and within ten minutes, two of the other recruiters I've spoken with stop in, apologize for interrupting, but say how uch they wanted to meet me. I'm suer they do this for most applicants, but still it's a nice gesture. One of them even tells me a part of Forest Hills ot check out after I get out of the interview.
After answering Danny's questions, he sends me down the hall for a drug test, and tells me to stop by the front desk for fingerprinting on my way out. It catches me off guard that both of these are done in-house on the day of the interview, but nonetheless, I take part in the proverbial pissing in a cup, find out within a minute that I've passed, go and get fingerprinted, and after spending a little more than two and a half hours at the Jet Blue headquarters, head out to explore more of Queens.
2:01pm - I head toward s71st Ave. off of Queens Blvd. which is where one of the recruiters told me to check out. I stop in a music shop along the way and look at all the pretty guitars I can't afford for a few minutes and continue along my way to 71st Ave. which I reach about 10 minutes later.
71st Ave. is a little strip of a street with retailers, local shops and restaurants. The one thing I notice about this section of town, is that unless you want something a little more upscale for eats, you're looking at grabbing a slice of pizza somewhere. While trying ot decide what to eat for lunch over a quad espresso, I come upon a Subway and decide to go with a sandwich.
3pm - One of the biggest differences in New York is that while there area lot of places to go, there is also the better part of ten million people who live in the city, which means that most establishments get crowded easily - well known chains even more so. After getting my six inch combo, I realize my only option is to sit at a table with an older woman, who after a few minutes, asks me to open her package of crackers for her, and starts a conversation about my cell phone. She seems nice, and we chat until I finish, and decide to text Josh to tell him I'm going to try and get myself home on my own tonite.
3:32pm - I begin my trek back to Brooklyn and catch the F train to 34th St.
3: 57pm - Approaching the platform for the Q train at 34th St. I notice a hot Asian woman wearing black boots on the platform. I glance her way, turn, and then notice she's approaching me. She asks me if I know if the R train on the opposite side of the platform is going towards the Financial District. Immediately the words "HOT, RICH ASIAN GIRLFRIEND" scroll through my head. I look up at the sign for the R and see it says, "Bay Ridge - 95th St." I tell her I think sh e needs to be on the other side of the station, catching the R the other way.
She leaves and I start to feel like i may have been wrong. I ask another woman next to me who tells me the Hot, Rich, Asian Girlfriend was right all along. Seeing as I don't know my way around quite yet, and she apparently doen'st either, I feel a certain responsibility to find her and correct my mistake. I head towards the R train on the track heading towards Queens, but can't find her. Hopefully she found her way to the financial district without much of a delay or inadvertent detour. If she's out there - I'm sorry.
I head back to my original platform and start hearing an announcement over the PA system telling commuters that "Due to an Investigation at 14th St. - Union Station" that a bunch of trains would be running late and skipping that stop in both directions. My Q train is indeed late, and therefore crowded, but I get home without incident. When Cait and Josh get home, I ask them if they heard what was going on at Union Station. They kind of laugh and tell me that it won't be in the news, and that that sort of thign happens often, without incident.
Tomorrow I have my interviews with Starbuck's at 39th & 7th,, and with the tagency. I might try to make it down to Lower Manhattan to meet with Blind and Visual Services, too.
