Day 5: And Away We Go...

With us moving up to the NYC, many have asked us to keep them posted on the goings-on and such, so we figured setting up a blog would be the best way to keep people informed of whats happening in our lives. If you like it, give it a read. If you don't, ahhh to heck with you.

Jen's job seems to be getting more smooth with each passing day. I'll let her explain it better in a future post, but she gave me the tour of the newsroom last Friday, and its quite the setup. She's constantly busy, to the point where even I don't attempt to call her at work. She's getting the hang of dealing with all the affiliates and such, and I'm sure its only a matter of time before she's the president of ABC... =)

Cooper and I rolled into town last Wednesday night after a full day of travel. He's gotten used to traveling in his carry-on bag. We had no problems at the airport or on the plane, and he's had to go in it every time we take him on the subway or a bus or the Long Island RailRoad. Likes to pop his head out occasionally to see what's happening, but otherwise just lies in it curled up. What a good dog!

On the other hand, try carrying 30 pounds of dog through the NYC subway entrance sometime. Not good times....bad times...ahh, but I'm developing a system.

Our neighborhood is nice, with a couple of large parks two blocks away that Cooper has already enjoyed multiple times. Lots of room for him to run around and chase pigeons and squirrels. Its quite the melting pot here in the Inwood neighborhood...don't hear English very often. Lots of Portugeuse, lots of Dominicans. I've already made close friends at the local Irish pub (shocker there) and have tracked down a good late night pizza joint.

Our apartment is much more spacious than I thought it would be, but no central air conditioner, which is literally killing me right now because "we're having a heatwave...a tropical heatwave" right now. Its been 80 plus degrees since I got here with a S&^%load of humidity, which is as uncomfortable as it sounds. We have an air conditioner in the bedroom and a large fan in the living room and thats it. Other than that, no complaints about the place and the person we're sub-letting it from couldn't be nicer.

Most importantly, the cable guy comes Wednesday...hooray!

We took Cooper to get groomed on Saturday and spent the day exploring parts of the city. Its going to take at LEAST two years to see everything, but its fun to see the different neighborhoods. Had dinner with two of Jen's co-workers at a Mexican restaurant in the Upper West Side which was quite good, but still didn't feel like home. Not enough illegals working there, I suppose...now THATS when you know you've got good Mexican food.

Went to the Hamptons on Sunday to visit Jen's cousins Harvey and Glenda. They showed us around and drove us by the homes of the big names who live out there...the Seinfelds, and Spielbergs and Stewarts (as in Martha)...the village is nice, but I thought it would be more hoity-toity than it was....seemed a lot like Carmel (overpriced shops, etc).

I start my job at the NYC Metro Networks offices today...training three days this week, and then I'm on my own next week. I work out of the CBS building so I'll be able to swing by Katie Couric's desk and tell her exactly how much she stinks...looking forward to that.

Couple of other random moments:

Celebrity Sightings:

Brooks and Dunn outside the Regis and Kelly studio near where Jen works. Got Kix Brooks to sign my Not For Tourists Guide...oh the irony...

CCH Pounder at the Starbucks on 61st last Friday morning as I went to work with Jen. She's the black woman with the somewhat spiky hair from the Law and Order shows...she ordered a venti white mocha...I feel like you need to know these things...

First friend from back home to visit with us: Adam Housley, though he doesn't really count as back home since he lives in LA. Anyways, he was in town to do Fox's morning show over the weeekend so we met him for lunch Saturday in Times Square (which is still a friggin' zoo, and I've somewhat turned into a NY'er already because I was complaining about all the tourists...damn tourists...)

Fun fact about NY: people are loud. Like, really LOUD. And they don't care if you hear them. In the span of 24 hours, Jen and I rode the bus with a guy who, very loudly and very profanely had a phone argument with his significant other, or her relatives (it was hard to tell) complete with F-bombs and "I'm a man..you can't talk to me that way" shoutings....then the next night, we're coming back from the Hamptons on the train, and the couple sitting next to us I think broke up and got back together 3 times over a 2 hour stretch...it was like having your very own soap opera right next to you...unbelievable...I gotta work on this loud and shouting thing...HELLO!!! NO, I'M ON THE CELL PHONE!!! WHADDAYA MEAN YOU CAN'T GET RANGERS TICKETS TONIGHT?!?!?! YOU &$^%^%!!!!!


Thats about it for now. Jen will touch on all the other things I've left out. Please stay in contact via email at our addresses:

weisswatts@gmail.com
mikewatts1023@gmail.com
mike_watts@metronetworks.com

or feel free to post responses here on the blog. We'll try to get some pictures of stuff up as well. We miss all of you terribly.

Future blogs will touch on all the wierd and interesting stuff that happens to you when you're a New Yorker...which I am now, I guess...so far, this still feels like a 2-year working vacation...

Mike