New York is very foggy this morning. We're in our new offices, the 28th floor (out of 29) only a short distance from the U.N., so normally the view out the conference window is of the U.N., Trump Tower, and the East River. But this morning it is like living in a cloud. It's a little surreal . . . a curtain hiding us from reality.

The worst of the chaos associated with moving to new offices (two weeks after I started) has passed, and this week it seems like the job has settled down a bit. That's good for me - last week I was so stressed! But I'm beginning to feel like I'm getting the hang of this place. And getting the hang of New York - the subways, the crush of people, even the traffic! I drove into Manhattan this past weekend with Rob to see my cousin Eric. He lives waaaaay at the top of Manhattan's west side, so I figured on a Sunday traffic wouldn't be that bad and I might as well just drive in. I checked the metro channel - NYC and Hudson Valley traffic and weather, repeated on a two minute cycle, all day. It was fine. So in we went. Unfortunately, somehow we managed to miss the bridge that would have taken us across the river on the island, and wandered around the Bronx for a few minutes, driving right by Yankee Stadium. Actually not that bad, considering the horror stories people usually tell of the Yankee Stadium area. I guess it's all perspective.

That's the the thing. Somehow, after having lived in the not so great part of Providence and traveling to the projects to work with the Head Start kids, I'm not nearly as intimidated by poorer parts of cities as I used to be. Sure, you need to be careful, and they aren't places I frequent at night. But it's not like there's random guys running around going "I'm going to jump the first white girl I see." If you look scared, then you just piss people off, because then they start thinking "oh she's scared, she assumes I'm going to hurt her just because," yadda yadda. If you consider yourself to be among equals and peers, you're less likely to get hurt, because the attitude you project will be different.

Okay gotta start working.