A Day in the Life

4/24/13—

My favorite time of the day since I’ve been in New York is the mornings.  It’s the excitement of the unexpected.  Some of you might think I’m a bit crazy since most aspects of my life are pretty boring.  Each morning I pretty much follow the same ritual—shower, get dressed in my FEMA Corps uniform, eat some peanut butter and toast, and sit in silence.  Lucky for me, my team has a later start time than the others, so I have the gift of 15 minutes of solitude.  For an introvert like me it is a beautiful thing and I savor every minute I have.  The team gathers in the hotel lobby each morning before we pile into the van.  I’m always curious to see what mood everyone is in.  I have become a morning person and most of my team are far from it.  They are mostly quiet as they walk out to the van.  But there are always exceptions.  Taylor is always ready to reveal a big grin before she climbs in the van and falls asleep during the commute.  And the others engage with me for a bit before they climb into their i-pod cocoon and drown out the world for the hour long commute.  Again, I get a brief respite of solitude…at least until we take the Queens Blvd exit.  Pete typically sits in the passenger seat every weekday.  In Americorps, this person is the designated safety and plays the role of DJ, GPS reader, and climate control.  It is his job to crank up the music as I shout out what a beautiful day it is and and tell them we are on our way to Candy Mountain (check out Charlie the Unicorn on Youtube if you have no idea what I’m talking about).  I am usually greeted with moans and groans from the half awake Corps Members.  The good news is that they have yet to kill me.  I think they understand how much satisfaction I get out of being so silly in the morning and they have come to realize that a happy Team Leader is much better than a cranky one.

We park the van at a parking structure across the street from our office building.  We work in a part of Queens called Forest Hills.  It’s mostly a residential area with small locally owned shops.  As for office space, it’s pretty much our building, a jail, and a court house down the street.  We drive by a hot dog vendor every morning that has a sign advertising legal advice and walk by a sign in the parking garage that asks folks to not urinate in public.  Truly signs that we are living and working in NYC.  Another sign that it’s NYC is all of the garbage.  Something I’m not all that accustomed to after living in Colorado and Wisconsin.  But nature still seeps in to the urban jungle.  The cherry blossoms and magnolia trees are in the bloom and there’s an occasional bird squawking at us.