on top of the world

manhattan view from apartment roofdeck

well, not quite.

on top of the roofdeck, at least. but it sure does feel a bit as though im on top of the world. for the time being, that is.

officially got promoted to senior art director this afternoon (a rung higher on the corporate scumbag ladder). felt pretty good. especially the big fat raise part of it. well not that fat. but good enough to fund my arse's flight to manila for christmas (been watching too much of "the office" brit version, obviously). ok, enough false modesty, the raise did go beyond what i had expected. which is good but which of course isn't the most important part of the job. i mean, id do what i do for free, anyway. well, not really. but i really do enjoy what i do at work. and it helps a lot that i really like working with the people coz i learn a lot from them, even just by exposure. whowuddathunk id be working with an italian (american, who's the second funniest person in the world, next only to the boss in "the office"), a jamaican, puerto rican, south korean, irish (who says "i love you" to everyone when he's drunk, it's an irish thing i guess), a russian, swede, portugese, a brit, a jew (who gets called fancypants coz he's in the rainbow side of things, not that there's anything wrong with it), and of course several "pure" americans.

it sure felt uncomfortable during my first few weeks at work being surrounded by such diverse strong personalities; but now that ive grown somewhat accustomed to them (ie desensitized and finding great humour to all the f bombs and possible HR offenses they make on a daily basis), i do feel very at-ease around them. and i really do look forward to going to work quite a bit (as much as i look forward to leaving, at least. plus, it helps a lot that now i could get in at 9:45AM without eyes rolling. or so i think).

BUT ANYWAY, on to the more important promotion.

i've finally managed to promote myself to the "fast lane" of the swimming pool in NYU. i guess ive been swimming long enough that i could now keep pace with those folks in the "fast lane". wooohooo, goodbye medium lane. hello fast lane. i now get to swim with the big boys and girls. and no longer with the -a-little-too-old-to-still-be-called boys and girls. feels quite good actually knowing that you're now swimming on a lane next to the "very fast" guys.

quite a view up here. huge city out there. millions of people. millions of lives. to each his or her own successes. heartbreaks. some valid, some not. but who am i to judge.

not sure if you've seen the calvin and hobbes strip where under a still starlit sky, calvin shouts off the top of his lungs, "IM SIGNIFICANT!" and the starlit sky remains a still starlit sky. wouldn't be pulling that calvin shit up here. there are enough loons here in new york. but it sure does give you a good sense of perspective being up here in the roofdeck.

always more to life than moving into the fast lane. (but dont worry i wont mind if you feel the urge to congratulate me on the promotions, haha.)