Monday, February 15, 2010
by Amanda.
After Mike kicked off Project MAMM, I started getting nervous. Eating food my friend prepared for me was a great idea. Having to reciprocate without giving anyone salmonella poisoning? Tricky.
I don’t know how to cook. It wasn’t something I intended not to learn - it just happened. Well, didn’t happen.
But I know how to clean most surfaces and decorate a living room, so Martha Stewart hasn’t killed me. Yet.
The easiest option for my turn at lunch was sandwiches. I envisioned something like the kind my mom once made me, except maybe with more than just ham in them. (I was a picky eater). I also decided to pass on the Capri Sun and ever-constipating fruit snacks made with strawberry-flavored rubber.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
by Amanda.
NYC got something like eight inches of snow today. School was cancelled, shops closed, sidewalks salted.
I could’ve worked from home like many of my co-workers, but there’s something you may not already know: Precipitation does not kill me.
While many people apparently chap walking two blocks from the subway to the office in cold weather, I don’t. I also manage not to slip on slush, fall through a subway grate, and freeze into a giant popsicle to be nibbled by rats.
Perhaps it’s my unattractive down coat?
Or maybe I’m just one of the chosen.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
by Amanda.
I work in the Financial District, home of thieving Wall Street fat cats and really bad Chinese food.
You can opt for a martini and steak lunch at a few famous restaurants, but those are fancy places for jowly men in suits. A typical workday involves scrounging at one of 3,452 delis with interchangeable lukewarm food bars, a greasy fast food joint, or the random hole in the wall.
I enjoy leaving my desk as much as the next person, but lunch offerings are pretty bleak.
My friend and co-worker Mike recently came up with a plan: We could each choose one day a week to bring lunch from home for the both of us and then eat it in one of the public plazas near our office.
Genius, right? Yet I felt one little nugget of worry - Mike had asked me to participate. Me, secretary-at-arms of the I Screw Up Microwave Popcorn League.
Friday, January 22, 2010
by Amanda.
My co-worker Samson is a bit of an oddball. He was born in Nigeria, and then went to boarding school in London and college in upstate New York. Now he’s a reformed skirt chaser in NYC.
We go to lunch a few times a week and find ourselves - and sometimes eavesdroppers - cackling at the banter back and forth.
And then there are the IM conversations.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
by Amanda.
This last week has been busy. Lemme sum it up all easy-like.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
by Amanda.
My current job is the best one I’ve had since college. I may dread the commute or getting out a warm bed, but I never dread having to go to work.
It helps that I have some wonderful co-workers. Also, I read and write and talk to people all day. I feel confident doing these things, yet they still make me grow.
But even now, sometimes I get in this mindset where I start thinking the days are really long and tiring.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
by Amanda.
Well, strikes out.
After the first time I wrote about Shaggy Steve, I heard from a woman who also met him at a social event.
She reacted much like I did, asking herself “What the fuck was that?!” and turning to Google.
I knew she wouldn’t be the last woman to find me this way.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
by Amanda.
At the end of the day, two co-workers and I are waiting for the elevator. The ring of orange around the down button has been glowing for nearly 10 minutes.
We’re shifting our weight and rummaging through bags and cellphone options when a set of doors pings open. A woman with a stroller slowly exits, looking around as if she’s on the wrong floor.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
by Amanda.
A lot of my company is now on Twitter, and it’s about time, considering that we’re in the digital marketing business. One of the bigwigs recently suggested that everyone not on the bandwagon suck it up and start tweeting. There’s been a lot of grumbling, and most people answer “What are you doing?” in less than inspiring ways, if at all.
I, however, am excited by Twitter. I like word games and being pithy. But if a tweet goes out on the Internet and no one is there to snicker at it, was it indeed tweeted?
I’m trying to not so subtly nudge my favorite co-workers to follow me.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
by Amanda.
I find the idea of spring cleaning my apartment a little daunting. Manhattan apartments get dusty like none other, so the results of a weekend scrubbing and scouring are undone in about as much time.
