New York City (Part 3)

(May 2007)

Greetings from New York! Today has been an interesting day…

Very uncharacteristically, I skipped breakfast this morning. I woke up with plenty of time to get ready for my first workshop, but I just wasn't hungry. I had this really intense dream last night that made me feel slightly…intoxicated. Mind you, I'm not actually intoxicated. But I definitely feel like I am….never had a dream do that to me before.

Classes this morning were great. The workshops were quite casual and I'm happy to announce I was not the most unfashionably dressed person there. =) Go me!

I got a birds-eye view of how to produce a web cast on the fly and learned a little bit about encoding. Good stuff.

A funny thing happened in my first workshop. Before I left for New York, I admitted to my husband that I might be too shy to actually meet anyone from the conference that I could hang out with for dinner or something.

He suggested I keep my eye out for a nice old lady to pair up with so I wouldn't get lonely. He figures little old ladies don't get into trouble I guess. Little does he know that some of the people that get into the most trouble…are little old ladies.

Well I laughed and said "I'll do that" even though I knew I probably wouldn't.

I did exactly what I feared I would…I kept my mouth shut the entire time and didn't meet anyone. After the first break however, I heard this very high-pitched--nose-pinched voice ask, "Is this seat taken?"

I turn around to find…. (Trumpet intro here) a little old lady with a big roller suitcase. I tell her nobody is sitting there and she takes the seat next to me. We don't actually introduce ourselves but I can see her nametag says "Dolly". How bout that.

She's got an East coast accent, possibly New York, possibly New Jersey. I can't really tell. I just thought it was funny that the one much-older woman in the workshop ended up sitting right next to me. If I end up going to dinner with her, I'm going to laugh my butt off.

After the first workshop we had a lunch break…and I had a plan. I was going to get a bagel and coffee from Starbucks and take it outside to eat in the sun. My plan didn't work out quite like that however.

New York City is completely different on a weekday than on a weekend.

Yesterday there were a lot of people walking around, today there were three times as many people walking…and they were walking faster and with more attitude. They had places to be, people to meet. Yesterday you could get away with pulling your camera out to snap a quick shot, today I didn't even try.

Yesterday I would have found a place to sit within minutes…today I couldn't find one empty bench, one empty space of cement anywhere. I didn't want to go far from the hotel since lunch was only an hour…so I ended up taking my bagel and coffee back inside.

At the very moment I'm sitting in the exhibit hall at one of the tables and there is a tiny Asian woman at the table next to me eating an entire New York sized pizza on her own. I'd have trouble believing this if I weren't actually witnessing it. I hope she doesn't catch me starring. I'm not judging her; quite frankly I'm impressed.

Side note! I've spotted another Amish man! I must find out what is going on here that has attracted so many of them.

Will continue writing after next workshop.

Later----

Ok----I thought the Amish didn't use electricity? Am I wrong? I was quite perplexed when low and behold, an Amish man walked into the next workshop we had on Video Production for Streaming Video. If the Amish don't use electricity, what in the world is this guy going to do armed with all this digital technology?

I really thought electricity/technology was a big no-no for them. Maybe it isn't a no-no. Maybe it's just frowned upon...like priests buying playboy…I'm positive that's not illegal for them…but I'm sure it's frowned upon.

So…would attending a digital media conference equate to getting caught with porn to the Amish? I'm just curious.

Aside from the Amish guy, nothing exciting happened in the second workshop. It was long and boring I'm sorry to say.

Because I still hadn't mustered the energy to just start talking to people (brings me back to my school days when I walked up to people to ask if they'd like to be my friend) I went out in search of dinner by my lonesome…only it wasn't that lonesome.

There were hundreds of New Yorkers walking the streets with me. It was silly how "not alone" I felt in the midst of all these people and yet able to remain completely anonymous.

I did however get hit on by one of NY's finest.

Three NY police officers were standing on the sidewalk (no, this is not the beginning of a really bad joke) and as I walked by I figured it was safe to smile at them. I saw one of them checking me out and then I heard one of the other officers shout, "Hey miss, are you available because someone is obviously lookin'."

I smiled and just kept walking.

New York is funny.