Call Me Lazy

Last weekend I went to Hartford for a netball tournament. My travelling partner, Marissa wrote all about it on her blog, so I thought I would point you in the direction of her blog!

http://anysecond.blogspot.com/2008/09/its-not-how-you-play-game-its-if-you.html

Summer in NYC

Before I moved here, I was advised that Summer was the worst time to be in New York City due to the intense heat and humidity. Well, I have to disagree - I think Summer is the best time to be in NYC. It is true that at times the heat can be oppressive, especially when you are in the subways that have next to no ventilation. But Summer in the city has its definite advantages. There are loads of events in the city, like free concerts in the park and street festivals and parades. Also, a lot of locals leave on the weekends to head out to places like the Hamptons and the Jersey Shore. That leaves the city relatively quieter and it is actually fantastic to walk through the city on a Sunday morning - it is so quiet that it has a totally different vibe than the rest of the week. Actually on the fourth of July (Independence Day), the city took on a new level of stillness. It reminded me of an overcast Christmas Day in Surfers Paradise.

Speaking of the fourth of July, do you recall the phrase "It was like fourth of July". It's often referred to on American shows when a woman is describing a magical kiss, as if there were amazingly huge fireworks. In the lead up to Independence Day, in true American form, I was told of how big the fireworks were on the fourth of July. As with many things, it appears that many things in this country are overstated!

That's not to say I didn't have a great Independence Day! I managed to hear about a party held by someone I don't know on his personal penthouse roofdeck in Midtown East, with a perfect view of the (just like any other) fireworks. They had limitless alcohol, a bbq, and a band. Afterward we went to a new bar at the builing formerly known as the Plaza hotel. Very plush.

So, other things I have been doing this Summer; I went white water rafting. It was sooo much fun! I went on a day trip to the LeHigh River in Pennsylvania, a 2 hour trip from the city. I play in a Summer softball league in various places around the city from Central Park all the way up to Harlem (is a little scary up there).

The city also opens up a slew of rooftop bars in the Summer and I have been making the most of the al fresco socializing. And next weekend some girls and I are renting a room at the Empire Hotel just so we can use the pool!

Until next time....

Fire Island

A few weeks ago it was Memorial Day weekend which is the official beginning to the Summer Season (although ironically Summer doesn't officially start until June 21st or something, somewhere close to the solstice). Anyway, a friend of mine organised a share house in Fire Island, which is a long narrow island off Long Island on the way to the Hamptons. You have to catch a ferry to cross the water and once there there are no cars and roads, just footpaths and red wagons (seriously!). It's very quaint and there are lots of families that come here and the kids ride around on their bikes without fear of being run over by cars. There is also a rather large partying contingent consisting mainly of 20-somethings. However, I would describe Fire Island as the antithesis of the Hamptons - very low key, relaxed and stress-free. But being a full fledged New Yorker by now, I could only last 2 days there before I was itching for my New York life again - so I headed back home a day early.

Work Turnaround!

I thoroughly enjoyed my 4 weeks of unemployment and was somewhat disappointed to learn that I had managed to land another job. I would have been perfectly happy to have been a bum for the duration of the Summer but alas it was not to be. That's not to say that I didn't think the job I had accepted wasn't a good opportunity, because on the surface it seemed like the chance for me to make a lot of impact and bring the company and it's website into this millenium.
So when I started and was subjected to an orientation session with others (who were to work in the call centre) I was considerably stunned by all the rules and regulations. Now, I have worked with government departments in Australia, but this government agency was like no other workplace I had encountered. I was not allowed to eat at my desk, nor wear headphones and I had to use a timeclock to check in and out everyday (haven't done that since I was a sales assistant at Myer) ! And that was just the start of the restrictions - imagine all their restrictions on web and phone access! There were other issues as well but I don't feel I can discuss them on a public website. So, after my first week there, I was not looking forward to my second Monday.
That morning as I was sitting at my desk, surrounded by people from non-English speaking countries (you can probably guess their origin - I am in IT) I felt the need to put my headphones on to drown out the foreign languages being spoken around me (actually that was another rule that was broken that I actually agree with), only to be chastised for wearing the headphones! That was the beginning of what I thought was the end of my time there. I informed my agency that I could not see out the contract and they asked me to hold out for a few days until they notified their client. When they finally were informed (that was a long 4 days!) the HR lady asked to speak with me to understand my reasons. I was to learn that I was not the first person to leave for the restrictiveness of the organisation.
A few hours later the CIO summoned me to his office. He asked me not to leave and promised to make changes to address all of my concerns including lifting all those restrictions and changing my reporting structure (I now report directly to the CIO) and even promised to make things more financially rewarding.
So, it's a week later and a lot has changed at the place where I work and I'm actually starting to enjoy it! Wonders will never cease!

It's been a long time...

I have been somewhat unattentive to my blog as of late, so I guess this post will be very jampacked! Since my last post I have seen Purim, Pesach and Yom Ha'atzmaut and have experienced all the celebrations therein. In Australia, these Jewish festivals would usually go by with little fanfare, but it is a different story entirely here in the Jewish capital of the Diaspora. Purim, the festival that encourages drunkenness was a week long instead of a day and I managed to get through the work week despite having attended 4 Purim parties that week!

For Pesach (Passover) I went with my friend Tracey to Chicago to visit her friends and family and also to visit some of my own family. On the Friday night before Pesach, we stayed in downtown Chicago with some friends of Tracey's and had a great night in a place called Viagra Circle (where men of Viagra age are on the prowl). Having come from New York where the men have a lot more of the power in the battle of the sexes, Men in Viagra circle are so much more aggressive. I think we were only at the bar for 10 seconds befure we had a number of guys wanting to buy us drinks!

The following night we had our first night seder with Tracey's family and the second night I spent with my cousins and Great Aunt (my grandmother's sister) and Great Uncle. It was great to see them all again and have my Aunty Sala fuss over me the way my Grandmother did when she was alive. It reminded me of my grandmother and was very touching. After the seder. Tracey and I went out with one of my cousin's Daniel and we went to Second City which is an improv theatre where a lot of famous comedians start their career.

I had informed my work that I was taking the Monday off due to my trip to Chicago. However, on Monday morning I got a phone call telling me that the funding for my project had been cut and I was not to come back to Pfizer until funding was again approved. Kinda killed my day off! But it looked like I was going to have a lot more than a day off!

So I'm back on the market for another job - not a great time to be looking given the current market conditions and the fact that the Summer is looming. On a lighter note, my parents arrive to visit me in two weeks, so maybe I'll be able to hang out with them more than I had planned!

Crazy Night in NYC!

The other night I had such a fun night that I feel that it deserves an enitre post all of it's own. It started off with Tracey and I attending a book launch party in the West Village. The book had something to do with the South Beach lifestyle in the 90s but in reality we didn't have much interest in the book, we were just up for an interesting party. There were a number of minor celebrities at this party, namely Cabdace Bushnell, writer of Sex & the City and Lipstick Jungle tp name a few, Tommy Hilfiger's daughters put in an appearance and the party was also attended by an apparent big time celebrity photographer, Patrick McMullan. I managed to meet Candace, but she wasn't too interested in talking, there was talk that she was a little sloshed! Tracey and I did meet a great woman, I would describe her as the quintessential New York Jewish woman. Her name is Fran and she is a Fashion Broker, in her 40s or 50s and is hilarious and totally says it how it is! Tracey and I had a lot of fun with her. Tracey got groped by some gay guys (not sure what the purpose of that was) and I was talking to an apparently
straight guy in a woman's fur-collared coat! Very strange already.
Then Tracey and I and some others headed off for dinner with some of our crew to a place called the Waverley Inn in the West Village. There were paparazzi out the the front, but they were rather tight lipped about who was inside. When we were seated, we could see two other parties from the party we attended - Candace Bushnell's crew and Fran's crew - what a coincidence!
Out the back there was a private room with a bunch of people and we noticed Chace Crawford from Gossip Girl and Mary Kate Olsen from every twin show on earth and the Heath Ledger drama. A bit later in the night, the celebrity crew started to leave, and I headed out to find out what had happened to the ever so cute Chace Crawford. Well, he was standing in an alcove with a bunch of people, so I walked up to him and introduced myself. We chatted for a bit and then I dragged him up the restaurant to meet my friends! They were somewhat in awe by my gall!
Later on, we went into the bar area of the Waverly Inn and met some British guys. We went with them to some Members Only club (no-not one you're thinking!) where the drinks are free for Members and their friends. It was a 4 storey townhouse on 14th street. Very cool - but empty so we left.
I'm really not sure I've done the night justice by my description. But trust me when I say it was a blast!

Philadelphia & Montreal

A few weeks ago I went to Philadelphia to visit some girls who I spent time with in Israel when I was 15! I found them on facebook after racking my brain for their last names. I stayed with one of them, Hadas, who lives in a part of town called Olde City, and I think you could probably guess why it's called that. We had fun catching up and Hadas, who is a minor celbrity in Philadelphia for being a reported on the News radio station there showed me her work which was pretty cool, and had a nice view of the city.

We had a bit of a reunion lunch with other girls that were on the same program in Israel and it was great to catch up with them, go through old photos etc.

Last weekend I went to Montreal to compete in a netball tournament for by netball club, Manhattan International Netball Club. We played 9 games in one day - it was very exhausting! The majority of the teams comprised of some greath athletes who originated from Carribean countries that are part of the British Commonwealth, as netball is largely unknown in North America.

Despite our exhaustion, we managed to get a second wind that night and hit the town that night and had a ball.

Happy & Sad

Happy - Got a new contract job! Actually had two offers on the same day. I decided to work on the project with Pfizer over the one with the New York Stock Exchange mainly due to the software I would learn at Pfizer as well as an intuition about the people I will be working with. I start on Monday!
Sad - Heath Ledger died (I'm sure you are fully aware by now). I was actually in his street today (Broome St in Soho) but I guess I didn't go past his building because I didn't see the flowers outside his building that Entertainment Tonight report were there today.

Happy - I reconnected recently with some old friends from Philadelphia that I met when I was in Israel when I was 15. I found them on facebook! I'm visiting them next weekend for a mini reunion!
Sad - The reason I thought about them was because of news of one of my Philadelphian friends who committed suicide on January 1st; Jordan Charlestein aka Dream Smith.

Did I write too soon?

A few posts ago I wrote about how delighted I was with certain aspects of my experience with medical professionals in the US. I think I must have jinxed it. It is entirely possible that my most recent experience has been the source of my greatest frustration since I moved here. And it's not over yet.

Let's bring you up to speed. The company that sponsors me for my visa offers a health cover to its employees with its health cover provider for the bargain price of $250 per month. It has been sold to me by my employer as a health cover that is unparalleled in the market due to its *cheap* price (I guess its all relative) and the fact that in network providers tend to have 100% of their fee covered, compared to an average copay of $20 of the fee with other providers.

Sounds good in theory. But as you would expect, there is a catch: who are these in-network providers and how convenient and available are they?

In December I attempted to see a GP before I was to head off for Cancun in a few days. So I consulted the website for my healthcare provider to find a GP that was listed as in network. I must've contacted 15 different GPs on the list and most of them had never heard of my healthcare provider and therefore would not see me. The few that would see me were booked up until January and there were a number of them that didn't answer the phone (how do they stay in business?) or the number was incorrect. By the end of this process I was frustrated to the point of tears and decided to forgo the doctor's visit.

I was amazed that I couldn't get an appointment for another month! How on Earth was I going to be able to see a doctor if and when I had a serious problem that could not wait a month?!? This did not make sense to me. I consulted some friends. It seems that if you are already a patient you could get a more convenient appointment but as a new patient you had to wait. I decided out of frustration to leave the issue for a while until I felt more tenacious and my patience level with this issue was replenished. I knew I would need to tackle this at some point so that when I really needed a doctor I had someone that would see me immediately.

So, almost two weeks ago, when I was speaking with my employer/sponsor, I mentioned the issue I was having with the health cover. He was very empathetic, and promised to take it up with the Insurance Broker. So, a few days later, I spoke with the Insurance Broker about the issue and he offered to provide me with a list of GPs that meet my criteria (female) that had been contacted to confirm that they do indeed cover my health insurance. This was a very nice offer I thought, but I guess the fact that I mentioned I was looking at alternative health covers was a contributing factor :) A couple days later I received a list of 4 female GPs, not all that close to me, but 3-4 stops away on the subway.

So I contacted the first on the list also closest to me. The first doctor on the list had an Asian name and was in 46th street. So I called them, and they gave me a different address on 56th street, further than another doctor on my list, but they were happy to see me in an hour! I admit, the immediate availability of this doctor, especially in comparison to the unavailability of other doctors previously contacted did raise some alarm bells, but I had begun on this path and was determined to see it through.

When I arrived at the address, it was simply a door leading upstairs and I wasn't sure which number to buzz in order for the door to open. Inadequate signage - not a good sign. So I called them and they buzzed me through. I then entered a room that was clearly a former Korean/Japanese restaurant. The former signage was still on the door. The room that I entered was nothing at all like a doctor's office! There were teacups and teapots and other asian wares on display in the room. There was a former bar where you could still see bottles hnging upside down ready to pour. And there were Korean people lounging around the reception area. It was explained to me that this was also a spa, but it didn't even look like that. I surreptitously tooks some photos, because you have to see it to believe it!

I sat there for about 10 minutes before I got the hell out of there! I didn't feel very comfortable putting my health in the hands of someone working out of this space!

I got home and booked an appointment 10 days in advance with a doctor that was not very close to me location-wise, but had a Jewish name which made me feel more comfortable! I guess it's silly for me not to see a Jewish doctor in New York of all places! I haven't had my appointmnet yet but I can't imagine it being worse than my most recent experience!

Old friends and new friends

There have been a few visitors from Australia in the last month. Simon & Skye on the way to touring through Central America, Rafi, who was here for a couple of weeks and my not so little cousin Richie.

Simon & Skye were here very briefly, but we managed to hang out a couple of times. Rafi was here for a few weeks and we had a lot fun: going to the basketball (the Knicks from a corporate box), hanging out in bars on the Lower East Side, the West Village, Flatiron, and Murray Hill (amongst others). Astoria in Queens even got a visit! We also went to a Shabbat dinner for International people, which was very entertaining.

Cousin Richie and I caught up on each other's lives and hung out a bit. My concierge still asks about my cousin with the crazy hair!

I also made some new friends recently, some cool if not adventurous girls. I'n not sure I want to play the "I Never" game with them again! One's a native New Yorker but the other two are from Sweden. The girl on the far right looks an awful lot like a younger Anna Nicole Smith!

And I went Ice skating in Central Park - two whole laps! I realized why it's been around 20 years since I last ice skated and decided that 2 laps was more than enough for me!

Weather here has been a bit schizophrenic with some days being 18 degrees (celsius) and others reaching as low as minus 9 degrees! At the moment its about average at 1 degree, not the most pleasant! But the nice thing is even though it can be this cold, the sun can still shine!