Amy Middleton Loves New York

Manhattan operates on its own time-space continuum. Here is my guide to help travelers get from JFK to Manhattan. The best travel method for you depends on what is most important: time, cost, or convenience:

time + convenience: cab or car service

http://www.jfkairportguide.com/jfk-taxi.html
$45 + tolls and tip, car services can be negotiated at the airport but will be similar in price.
Considerations: most expensive option, but you’ll go straight to your destination with minimal stops. Up to 4 passengers.
Instructions: Go to ground transportation and grab a cab or car.
Total Time: 30 - 60 minutes (depending on traffic and destination)
Total Cost: about $55

time + cost: LIRR

http://www.mta.info/mta/airtrain.htm
(note: I’ve never done this, but it is a very quick and reliable option.)
Considerations: Involves transfers (bad for luggage) and ability to find one’s way (bad for visitors).
Instructions: Use HopStop to plan your trip in advance. Follow transportation signs to AirTrain. Take AirTrain to Station D (Jamaica) depending on where you are going. You will buy a $5 ticket AFTER you leave the AirTrain. Follow signs to LIRR. Take LIRR to Penn Station. Transfer from Penn to Subway if necessary.
Total Time: 35 - 60 minutes (depending on destination)
Total Cost: $13 - $15.25 per person

cost + convenience: shuttle

http://www.jfkairportguide.com/jfk-shuttle-information.html
Considerations: Expect to share the van with up to 10 other passengers. Arrival time is very unpredictable as a result. If you have luggage and time on your side, this is a reasonable option.
Instructions: Follow signs to Ground Transportation. Ask for the super shuttle. You can also book in advance on their site: http://www.supershuttle.com
Total Time: 30 min - 180 minutes (depending on traffic and which stop you are)
Total Cost: $23 + tip, $10 for additional passengers.

cost: subway

http://www.mta.info/mta/airtrain.htm
Considerations: You will probably have to use stairs and carry your luggage an uncomfortable distance. You will have to ask people to help you get to where you are going.
Instructions: Use HopStop to plan your trip in advance. Follow transportation signs to Air Train. Take Air Train to Station A (Howard Beach) or D (Jamaica) depending on where you are going. You will buy a $5 ticket AFTER you leave the Air Train. Follow signs to Subway. Buy a Subway ticket if necessary. Take E train to Manhattan. Transfer where HopStop tells you to transfer.
Total Time: 80 - 120 minutes (depending on delays and transfers)
Total Cost: $7.25

learn to walk on hands.
convince seth i’ve won the donut abstinence contest.
quit or get fired.
acquire a crocheted cap with a flower.
update blog. check.

Just received this email:

Amy, if you need someone to give a testimonial to your method, let me know! I just used your method today for a coverletter, and got asked back for an interview within three hours of sending it! …All I did was very blatantly use their requirements and show how my experience met them. It’s a _really_ great system and it works! Just wanted to send you a success story. I’ve told everyone I know who is looking for a job to go to your seminar.

My seminar? Why, yes. This Wednesday, July 15, I’ll be giving a presentation on cover letters. It will NOT be the same slideshow that is available online. I’ve created a new presentation just for this event, and I think it’s actually more helpful than the slideshare.

First and Third Wednesday Networking Group
Wednesday, July 15, 2009 - 5:30 PM to 7 PM
LDS Employment Resource Center: 144 West 15th Street, New York, NY 10011
Pre-registration is required by calling 212-255-0579 or sending an email to wel-ec-newyork@ldschurch.org

My presentation will be the last half hour- before that there will be a video and some group networking.
If you have questions, please let me know: orangewalk at gmail dot com
Hope to see you there!

I don’t have a bucket list for leaving NYC. My fake answer is “the last seven years are my bucket list.” In truth, there is no way for me to be done with the city and feel totally ready to move on. But with my mom and aunt visiting over the last few days, I’ve come a little closer to being ready to say goodbye. Here’s what we’ve done. My initial list had links but I can’t seem to get them to copy over, so if any of this is intriguing, google it or ask me about it:

wednesday
Jamaican patty stop
Fairway
Riverside Park to watch the Hudson
Subway to Chelsea. The Highline.
Tasti D-lite and Papaya Drinks
FIT Museum
Macy’s, pretzel, and chess, Herald Square
Penn Station, West 4th
Bleeker Street, Five Guys
Washington Square Park

thursday
Imagine Circle and Strawberry Fields
Alice’s Teacup
Manhattan Temple
Duane Reade and Columbus Circle
Brooklyn Botanical Gardens
Grimaldi’s
Raising Arizona at the Brooklyn Bridge Park

friday
food and Bryant Park
NYPL Main Branch Library
Grand Central Station
Union Square
Max Brenner
Dylan’s Candy Bar
MoMA
Times Square and t-shirts
In the Heights
pizza and Duane Reade

saturday
South Ferry, quick view of Battery Park
Governor’s Island
GW Bridge
7-eleven
tour of Washington Heights
Malecon

sunday
church
Conservatory Gardens
subway, airtrain, JFK

I’m a fan of David Silverman and about a third of the way through his book “Typo: The Last American Typesetter or How I Made and Lost 4 Million Dollars. His most recent article on HarvardBusiness.org is about cover letters–how they’re not important, and how the only time it’s worth the effort to write one is if you’ve been personally referred or know something about the job requirement.

First of all, why wouldn’t know know something about the job requirement if you are APPLYING for the job? Secondly, here is, word for word, his example of the best cover letter he’s received:

Dear David:

I am writing in response to the opening for xxxx, which I believe may report to you.

I can offer you seven years of experience managing communications for top-tier xxxx firms, excellent project-management skills, and a great eye for detail, all of which should make me an ideal candidate for this opening.

I have attached my résumé for your review and would welcome the chance to speak with you sometime.

Best regards,

Xxxx Xxxx

Not that there’s anything glaringly wrong with that example, but I’m surprised something so generic would stand out from the pack. The fact that it does is a bit disheartening.

I haven’t been able to post a comment to the article discussion, so I will say it here. If the scenario he mentions is reflective of what other hiring managers are dealing with–if all the cover letters they see are recaps, form letters, or just crazy emails–then your goal as a job seeker shouldn’t be to “not bother” writing a relevant cover letter, it should be to do even better, since it obviously won’t take much to set you apart from everyone else.

i just threw out our compost
behind the building in an abandoned weed field
but it smells so bad
i’m so nervous everyone will smell it
and it will be traced to me and i’ll have to pay a fine.
does that happen?
is it against the law to throw out compost?
and is there any way to make harlem smell worse than it already does?

This is me. I’m the idiot kid who is trying to remember one thing, but on the way to get it, is distracted by a million others.

I was complaining about this to Seth, whose mention of law school made me want to go to law school. Of course, just this weekend, I’ve also wanted to pursue a career as a caricature artist, copywriter, urban farmer, analytics consultant, and author. I blame catching up on TED talks for some of those, but the point is, anytime I see someone involved in an amazing project, I want to be involved too.

Seth said that choosing one path at the exclusion of others can make it more valuable. He definitely has a point. Later I was catching up on Google Reader (I get so behind!) and a link from Yancy about dreams and blessings, and one from Jared Covington about the value of goals had me considering again how to decide what to pursue.

That great goals motivate is a given. But are great goals created– the product of worthy objectives, deliberation and desire? Or are they the low hanging fruits that immediately attract us and compel us to continue?

Being as easily distracted as I am, I tend to sort through all the attractive possibilities and decide which ones really make sense to pursue. But that seems counter-intuitive, especially in the face of the idea that if you’re not already taking action, it’s a bad goal. How do you decide?

Dear City of New York,

It breaks my heart to even think it, and it’s been a weepy weekend as I’ve considered exactly what this means, but I feel we need to break up.

This does not mean I don’t love you. For these many years, I have loved you as much as a girl can love a city, sometimes to questionable levels. And you, of course, have loved me back, giving me opportunity, independence, and experiences without which I wouldn’t be who I am today. I will miss you deeply, and I’m sickened by the pain I feel when I think of leaving. After nearly seven years together, surrounded by transience, I am seriously unprepared to say goodbye.

You are magic and energy and in overdrive even in your quietest moments. I don’t know how you do it, and my pace has quickened as I’ve run to match your gait. You, more than anywhere I’ve ever been, know how to fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run. I cannot fault you for that. But I’m no longer interested in going where you are going. More accurately, I’m losing interest in your treadmill marathons. All of this energy expended is not getting me where I want to be.

I don’t imagine this comes as a surprise to you. I’ve tried to break up with you before. I’ve threatened to leave, flirted with other cities, and had the occasional cross-coastal fling. I may have seemed unfaithful, but each time I’ve come running back, clinging to your dysfunctional, familiar patterns. Even this past winter when things were icy between us and all I did was plan my escape, my exasperation was no match for you and your list of why we are so good together. Everywhere I tried failed because it couldn’t measure up to you, faults notwithstanding. I could never move on because there was nowhere to move on with. But it had become clear that ultimately, my future would not be with you.

Please forgive me in this. I am only thinking of myself. May I remind you, though, that such has been the foundation of all your relationships, and is the only way we’ve survived together so long. You are one of the better things that has happened to me, and I know you will be fine without me. You will continue to charm and impress all who know you, and those who don’t know you will speak of you with envy and awe. You are brilliant and complicated and powerful and inspiring. You, of course, are New York.

Years ago , I read an article attempting to dispel the theory that advertising sells sex. If it did, went the argument I can’t find to properly reference, people would have sex more and that would be it. Instead, advertising sells dissatisfaction with sex, and subtly positions products as the solution. We buy, spend, and consume more as a result, but in the end aren’t any more satisfied.

I have been wondering lately if my dissatisfaction with, well, “urbaness” generally and my neighborhood specifically, is truly the call of the wild it’s felt to for the past year. I love the idea of working the land, caring for animals, and living more honestly and simply. But such a life is not inherently found in all places outside of Manhattan. I’m not even sure whether it exists anywhere. Even California has seasons, and I have yet to find the perfect city that can offer me a yard, an airport, and a reasonable alternative to a personal vehicle.

I love this city. Admittedly it can be a seasonal affair, but it’s hard to not feel that New York is the blood that runs through my veins, and without it survival would not be possible. Its taxes, rent, rudeness, apathy, effort, shared walls, infestations, attitude, costs, artificiality, pollution, “customer service,” hedonism, selfishness, and vulgarity can certainly take its toll on me. The thing that’s keeping me from running for the hills is well-explained by John Steinbeck. “There is one thing about it. Once you have lived in New York, and it has become your home, no place else is good enough.”

We were leaving the 28th Street station when he sat down to my left. Not that I usually pay attention to seat occupation; other than being cognizant of a physical presence, I don’t much notice my subway neighbors. But I could tell this man was older by the arthritic manner in which he wrestled to open his bag, his right elbow jolting into the territory I would ordinarily consider my “personal space.”

I continued to calendar as he fumbled with the flap, then the latch, finally reaching the inner treasures of his bag. As our space overlapped, my thoughts meandered from my day planning to his monumental effort to retrieve a simple object. How will it feel to combat the ever-quickening pace of the world with motor skills that betray and shut down?

His shaking hands again caught my attention as they emerged from the bag with a softbound book dressed in a worn, plain black cover. I was curious whether the built-in tassel marked a page of belabored journal entries, or a page of his readings, now out-of-print. Either way, I was proud of my neighbor for trying to stay sharp in this “boat against the current” era of technology and progress. I rather anxiously watched him open the book. It contained no pages at all, but an Amazon Kindle. I vacated my seat at the next stop, properly schooled, paper day planner still in hand.