Andy Chase

As originally mentioned, I'm in New York for most of the week.

I don't travel much; plenty of day trips, but rarely do I go anyplace involving a mode of transport other than car, or a stay in a hotel, so I've never really had the occaision to keep trip diaries like my friend Josh. At least, not since starting a weblog.

I didn't really keep any record of my last trip to New York other than a nice photo or two, and four years later I don't remember a whole lot. To be fair, there's not a whole lot to remember - New York city in February is kind of harsh, and it gets dark at about 4:30; I spent most of my time in the city either in the office or in my hotel room.

So this time it goes in the blog. I'm already a day behind, so here's day one in a nutshell:

Took the train from Amherst, Massachusetts in to Penn Station, where I caught the A train straight downtown. A five minute walk brought me to the hotel, which is really more of a 'short term corporate housing' sort of a deal - fortunately I got here before the office was closed. I suppose the concierge might have been able to do something, but it's hard to say. This trip happened on fairly short notice, and this was the only thing available that wouldn't have required a cross-town trip to the office where I'll be spending my days. I even got upgraded from the place originally booked, which is how it is that I find myself in a furnished studio loft in the heart of Greenwich Village, with fridge, stove, and cupboards full of plates, pots, pans, and cutlery. I don't know what's going on in the city that would make rooms so scarce - perhaps people coming into town for commencement at various colleges around the city.

I spent my first evening in New York exploring the Village for a radius of a couple of blocks around the hotel. After surveying the dozens of restaurants and cafes, I decided to start the trip off with a slice of pizza from a nondescript hole in the wall... just like last time, when I had a piece of pizza from a nondescript hole in the wall up in midtown, it kicked the ass of just about anything I found in six years in Los Angeles. And, I must admit, it was better than a lot of the pizza I've found in north central Massachusetts.

I wound the night down by nerding around on the computer, as evidenced by my photo post and the OS X Cron/iTunes alarm clock geekery. (Which, I might add, worked perfectly.)

Time to get going - more to come.